


White Light

by sophasil



Series: The Phoenix [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 04:43:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7787239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophasil/pseuds/sophasil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Really a collection of chapters of mostly self contained stories of guardians being guardians based in and around the main story arcs of destiny</p><p>I just really wanted to write about Guardians just developing their powers and then from there it just was writing about just what being a Guardian must be like. I know it doesn't sound thrilling but I promise it's good, it's funny hopefully to you at the very least.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Also just heads up there's some canon inconsistencies but also I forgot where they were so just ignore them since they aren't substantial points I guess.

"I was born the moment the Traveler died. As everything collapsed around us. Before that day, there had never been a Ghost. There had never been a Guardian. I don't know much about the Traveler, but I know it made me to bring you back. And I spent a really, really long time searching for you. The Cosmodrome? Not the first place I looked. As I saw the other Ghosts find their Guardians, and the centuries went by, I wondered if I'd ever find you. And then... I did." A small white robot flew in between the wreckage and destruction of cars from a long-lost age, occasionally stopping to scan something that caught its attention. The Ghost scanned a charred skeleton that was resting in one of the old rusted cars before it. "Not this one either," it muttered. The Ghost carried on searching through the rubble until it spotted a crashed ship by the cliffside. Inside the cockpit were the remains of yet another forgotten soul lost to time. Ghost scanned the skeleton, hoping that it had finally found its Guardian. The little robot completed a successful scan and watched its very own Guardian manifest right in front of it; the Guardian was a tall female Awoken, with pale purple skin, silvery-coloured hair, and the trademark iridescent eyes all Awoken had. 

"Eyes up, Guardian. You’ve been gone for a while. Some things have changed since you last saw, just… just don’t be too shocked,” Ghost explained. The Guardian looked up at the tiny floating robot in utter confusion. To clarify, the Ghost elaborated, “I’m a Ghost, specifically I’m _your_ Ghost. I’ve been looking for you for a long time, Guardian—” In the distance there was a commotion, distinct growls and gunfire. Worried, Ghost urged, "Quickly we need to get you out of here and towards that wall. And eventually to the City." 

The Guardian nodded in compliance and shuffled out of her seat. She fell hard, slamming into the floor of the wrecked ship and hurting herself. With a slight limp, she climbed out of the cockpit and looked around to get her bearings. Some couple hundred meters from where the robot had found her was the entrance to the colossal wall it had mentioned. The Guardian started to hobble her way through the overgrown field, navigating her way in between the the rusted husks of Golden Age cars, to her make into old staircase that led into the inside of the wall. Ghost illuminated itself as a torch, so the Guardian could navigate through the darkness of the inner wall. As she ran through the gangways of the hollow wall, dodging incoming fire from unknown sources, until she tripped over an old discarded auto rifle. The Guardian picked up the rifle, since it was currently her only line of defence, and carried on making her way through the wall.

They ran through the darkness, shooting at everything and anything that made a noise, until they came across a warehouse overgrown with flora that had a dilapidated jumpship hanging in some cables attached to the ceiling. Ghost flew over to examine the ship. “It’s in working condition… Mostly, it’s mostly in working condition. It won’t break orbit, but that’s not where we’re heading. Give me some time and I get can it slightly—” 

Ghost was interrupted by a group of Fallen that had also taken an interest in the old jumpship. Three Dregs, a Shank, and a Captain stood across the warehouse from the Guardian; the Captain began speaking to the Dregs in its garbled language, and soon after the five Fallen began opening fire on the Guardian and Ghost. “Scrap that!” Ghost panicked, quickly giving the ship one last scan. The Guardian retaliated by shooting back at the Fallen. She managed to take out two of the Dregs and the Shank with relative success, and then snapped around to force push the last Dreg that had tried to attack her from behind. Before she had time to deal with the Captain, Ghost transmatted the Guardian aboard the ship. “Time to go!” it instructed, and the Guardian nodded in agreement. The ship powered up and shakily made its way out of the hangar. “I don’t like this...” Ghost muttered behind the Guardian as they rose out of the large hole in the warehouse. "That hole is there for a reason, this ship probably made it!"

“I don’t know, I think we’ll be alright,” she said softly, in an effort to comfort her companion. Once they reached clear open sky, the ship stabilised itself. The Guardian began to fiddle with the ship's instruments to try and find any sort of navigational aid, but almost everything was out of commission. "Everything's down." She grunted in frustration.

Piping up, Ghost explained, "I had to rework the innards of the ship a lot to make it fly... Don't expect much else out of it, I'm afraid, not even a radio."

Inquisitively, the Guardian asked, "Can you navigate for me? To this City?"

" _Can do_." The Ghost answered immediately, "Ghosts are very talented." 

The Guardian wasn’t certain, but she was pretty sure that ships weren’t supposed to make any kind of continuous rattling like hers was making as she soared through the sky. “Still think we’ll be alright?” The Ghost asked tentatively. 

"Well..." The Guardian trailed off. It was soon too late to worry whether or not they’d suddenly plummet out the sky, as they flew right into the middle of a thunderstorm. “Hold on,” she muttered through gritted teeth.

“To what?” Ghost exclaimed.

When they were finally out of the storm, they could see the Traveler in the distance, and below it The City. They flew in past the Traveler, but there was barely a chance for the Guardian to get a good look at it before they reached the massive tower at the edge of the City. Ghost transmatted them both down onto the plaza, and the ship flew itself off to the right, out of sight. The Guardian was amazed by the sight of the place; out of everything she’d seen since waking up, this was the most magnificent. The entire structure appeared to be made out of dulled white marble. Even if the stone over the years had lost its polish, and the tiles were cracked, the plaza was completely stunning to her. Even more spectacular was the Traveler, which hung over the City in the far distance. 

The ghost noticed her staring and commented, “That is the Traveler, Guardian. It made me to find you, so that we could fight the Darkness.”

The Guardian dashed towards the railing of the plaza excitedly. She turned to her Ghost, grinning. “Hey! You know what though? It kinda looks like a big white ball.” 

“A big white ball?! The Traveler is the reason either of us, and any of this is here!” Ghost exclaimed, shocked by its Guardian’s comment.

The Guardian looked back at the Traveler, then to the Ghost, the back at the Traveler. She used her thumbs and forefingers to make a roughly rectangular shape, then moved her hands so the Traveler was in her centre of the rectangle and whispered. "Yeah... Sphere, white, big... _Big white ball_.”

“No respect. Come on, let’s get to The Tower so you can meet the Vanguard,” Ghost huffed, irritated that its Guardian wasn't taking everything as seriously as it had hoped.

“Who are the Vanguard anyway?” Polaris asked, following her Ghost across the plaza.

“They are, I suppose, the de facto leaders of the Guardians. Oh you’re going to like them, they’re great, Cayde was the one who told me to head to the Cosmodrome to look for you.” Ghost explained. All the new and amazing sights she was seeing were overstimulating the Guardian to the point where she was skipping out of pure excitement. "Oh!" Ghost continued. "And then there's Ikora! She's in charge of the Warlocks, which is what it appears you are shaping up to be. She can be fun... When she's not serious... Or focused... Which is most of the time. And then there's Zavala, he's... Serious... All of the time, that's his thing..."

As they headed down the steps, the Guardian noticed the phrase ‘ATRIVM PROPVGNATORVM’ etched into the wall at the end of the stairs. “Hall of Champions,” Ghost whispered, as if to clarify. “This is exciting! I’ve been waiting for this day for so long now!” The Guardian walked through the hallway past several other people, including a rather tall Guardian in impressive-looking armour. Ghost whispered, “That’s Lord Shaxx, he runs the Crucible where Guardians train against each other. _Stop staring_!”

The Guardian pushed away her little ghost. “I wasn’t staring, Ghost!” she whispered back defensively, “just show me where these Vanguard are.”

“Hm, sure. They’re just up ahead,” True to what her companion said, they soon entered a large hall. In its centre was a table surrounded by three Guardians and their ghosts; a human, an Exo, and an Awoken, each a member of one of the three respective classes.

“Ghost, is this a new Guardian? I have not seen her before,” inquired the woman dressed in a long magenta coat.

“Yes, Ikora, ma'am,” Ghost replied.

“Based on the armour your ghost made you, I’d say you are a Warlock, is that right?” Ikora asked softly.

“I, uh—” the Guardian stuttered.

Ghost pushed forward. “Yes, ma'am. I, uh… Well, we haven’t really used abilities, but I'm pretty sure she used a force push on a Dreg's face earlier,” Ghost explained.

"Only just revived and already fighting our enemies, nice one!" The Exo congratulated.

“Cayde, please!" Ikora scolded, turning back to the Guardian. "What is your name, Guardian?”

“I’m sorry but... I don’t know...” the Guardian told her disappointingly.

Ikora simply raised her hand and smiled. “All Guardians suffer memory loss from their previous life, fret not. See this as an opportunity to name yourself with something of importance to you. Ghost, why don’t you give your Guardian a tour of the Tower, and she can familiarise herself and get properly equipped. While you show her around, make sure you stop by Banshee and Amanda. When you’re ready please come back here.” she instructed.

“Of course, ma'am,” Ghost said obediently, “come on, Guardian.” They turned around and started to walk back to the plaza.

Banshee had three guns laid out in front of the Guardian. “We’ve got a pulse rifle, an auto rifle, and a hand cannon. What’s your pick, Guardian?” Banshee asked.

“Hmm. I, uh… pulse… no, the auto… or the… Ghost, what gun do you think I should use?" The Guardian asked as she indecisively looked at the guns.

"I might be a robot, and you might be undead, but don't keep me here all day Guardian. I do have other people to serve." The old Exo grunted as the Guardian continued to stare at the weapons Banshee had laid out.

" _Mmm_ … yes! The pulse rifle!” The Guardian finally decided ,picking up the simple gun and slinging it over her shoulder.

“Sure? Certain? Okay...” Banshee teased.

“Okay, next we have to see Amanda in the hangar,” Ghost said. The Guardian followed Ghost’s directions to the hangar. When they reached the hangar, a ship came in for landing. Eager to get a good look at the ship, the Guardian rushed towards the fence to watch it land.

“These ships are amazing! Ours is a real piece of junk. We should get one like that!” She said to her ghost, pointing excitedly at a sleek red jumpship that came into landing.

After several minutes, Ghost finally pulled the Guardian away from awing at the incoming and outgoing ships. They walked up some metal stairs to find Amanda Holliday seated atop a set of crates. “Hey, Guardian. You here for a ship?” Amanda asked.

“We’re new, Ikora sent us to get a sparrow,” The Guardian explained.

“A new Guardian? Haven’t had a new one of you guys for awhile. Are you the ones who brought that flying scrap metal into my hangar? Hm, let’s see, I have an old sparrow around somewhere that you can have.” Amanda said, “the S-10. You can have that, no one is going to buy it and you guys’ll need it.” She pulled out a tablet and tapped away. “When you’re out there, your ghost should be able to transmat it to the ground for you.”

“Thank you, ma'am,” Ghost said, "walking gets tiresome."

"You don't walk!" The Guardian argued.

Defensively, Ghost replied, "Watching you walk gets tiresome!"

"Rude little robot..." She muttered, gently swatting her Ghost away. Being around all these vehicles was making the Guardian ever so delighted and she was filling up with dozens of questions she wanted to ask Amanda. “You look after all the ships here?” The Guardian blurted out. Amanda nodded and the Guardian’s face lit up in excitement. “Wow, that’s neat. How many ships are here?” The Guardian asked passionately.

The shipwright started counting on her fingers, muttering to herself until she came up with an estimate. “About a thousand, roughly..."

The Guardian’s eyes widened with delight, and she exclaimed “A thousand? That’s incredible!” 

She was getting ready to ask Amanda many more questions on the hangar, the ships, and their maintenance when Ghost interrupted, “We should really go see the Cryptarchy next, so… Come on, Guardian, leave Amanda alone.”

“But—” The Guardian argued.

“Another time, Guardian,” Amanda suggested. The Guardian begrudgingly walked away from Amanda and her ships. They left the hangar to go meet with the Cryptarchy.

Master Rahool went on about the Cryptarchy, engrams, and their work with Warlocks. She wasn’t about to say it, but the Guardian was bored with the long talk Rahool was giving. “Yes… mhm… no, of course… I see,” the Guardian murmured disinterestedly as Rahool went on talking at her.

After what seemed like ages, Rahool finally finished, “Be safe.”

“Uh... _You too_?” the Guardian mumbled, rushing off to see Ikora again.

Ikora greeted Guardian and Ghost with a warm smile. “Guardian, glad to see you back. I won’t lie to you, our forces are stretched thin. I’ve had you placed in a fireteam of two Guardians who had previously requested a Warlock. They will help train you, Guardian, and the three of you are to complete missions together.” Ikora explained.

“I could always do it… teach the new Guardian… get out of this Tower...” Cayde muttered from across the table.

“Cayde!” Zavala complained.

Ikora rubbed her temples in frustration and muttered under her breath. Turning back to the Guardian, she calmly elaborated, “They said they’d be waiting for you in lower part of the hangar, near the Dead Orbit representatives. I’ll send the location to your Ghost.” The Guardian thanked Ikora and left the Hall of Champions.

“What?!” Cayde asked nonchalantly, “I just want to get back out there, is that so bad, Zavala?”

The Guardian was excited to go back to go back to the hangar to see the ships, but Ghost insisted that they meet their new fireteam. Together, they made their way to the main floor of the hangar and descended into a lounge area, where they found two Guardians seated at a booth. One was a human woman with dark purple hair and bronze skin; the other was an Awoken male, with pale grey skin and dark navy hair.  
The woman noticed the Guardian and flagged her down, calling her over. “You are the Guardian Ikora assigned us?” She asked.

"Me? Well uh, maybe... Probably? Probably..." The Guardian muttered.

"It's just, you look new... And lost. So I figured you must be the Warlock." The Titan laughed.

The Guardian figured that the two strangers she was now talking to now had to be the Fireteam she'd been placed on, since no one else seemed all that interested in her presence in the bar at all. "Yes! I am the Warlock!" She said enthusiastically with confidence.

"Great!" The Titan beamed.

" _Great_!" The Hunter mimicked, sneering, "a Warlock that doesn't even know what they're doing..."

The Titan shuffled across the sofa she was seated on to allow the new Guardian to sit next to her, and she gave introductions. "I'm Khleo, Titan, the leader I suppose of this Fireteam... Mostly because he's not responsible enough to be in charge. And the _ever-charming_ Hunter there is Taren. He's... Well, he's grumpy because we lost a match in the Crucible and… something about aesthetics?" The Hunter gave a quick, forced smile, then resumed glaring into the distance. "Like I said, ever-charming. So, Warlock, what is your name?"

"My name... Oh... Well... I was thinking... Polaris. Because, well, I like ships... And space is cool and..." She trailed off, embarrassed about the whole idea of naming herself.

"Polaris! That's a lovely name!" Khleo beamed. The Titan slid a strange looking package over to the Guardian, nodding for her to take it. "It's an armour shader, figured you might like it. Chalcedony. It'll colour your armour white, red, and teal. No one will admit it, but having unmatched armour pieces is the worst. Sure, we're fighting aliens that want to destroy us and all, but you have to look good doing it!"

Polaris fiddled with the package for a bit before equipping it. "This is great... But doesn't he have an armour shader?" Polaris asked, pointing at Taren.

"Excuse me? This is my shader! It's Prussian blue, dull grey, and midnight purple. My armour looks great in this! You don't like my colour scheme? This colour scheme is perfect! The aesthetic!" Taren ranted, clearly hurt by her thoughtless comment.

Khleo leaned in close to Polaris to whisper. "He likes his aesthetic." The Guardian nodded and decided that from now on it would be best to leave the Hunter alone about anything regarding style.

“Well, I'm glad you like it, but we have a mission to get on with, so we should head out. Can’t teach you anything sat down in the hangar. Come on, let’s get to the flight deck and sort your new ship out,” Khleo said. The three of them got up from their booth and headed upstairs to find Amanda Holliday.

The flight deck was, in Polaris’ eyes, the newly-declared most incredible thing she’d ever seen, although she did admit that since coming back she hadn’t actually seen all that much. Amanda and some frames were fixing up a couple ships. “Hi, again, Amanda!” Polaris called out. “Khleo got me a new ship, isn’t she great?”

Amanda laughed at the new Guardian's overwhelming excitement. “Yeah, she’s pretty great. Alright, Khleo, Guardian, Taren.”

Khleo smiled and nodded, while Taren just grunted. “ _Ever delightful_ , Hunter...” Amanda muttered. She walked the three Guardians over to a dark grey jumpship. “It’s your standard Phaeton-class long range jumpship, it’ll take ya out of orbit in one piece, I don’t think that scrap you got can say the same,” Amanda explained. “Now, you’re quite tall for a pilot, so follow me in and we’ll see if we can adjust some things to accommodate your height.” Amanda turned to Khleo and said, “I met this one earlier today. Good choice on getting her a ship, I think she likes them more than me.”

The Vanguard dispatched the newly-formed fireteam to investigate some reports of increased Fallen activity in the European Deadzone. The three Guardians dropped down into a Golden Age city that was now abandoned. The parts of the buildings that weren't covered in ivy and moss showed signs of long-forgotten battles. The fireteam moved into a nearby partially-destroyed church.

They gathered in a circle while Khleo debriefed them. “Shaxx has said that Guardians in the Crucible have reported Fallen activity during the matches, so we’re just here to perform reconnaissance and assess the extent of the Fallen presence here. They’re already taking over the Cosmodrome, they don’t need Old Europe too.”

Taren took point while Khleo and Polaris followed behind. They walked through the desolate city. The people who had once lived here were long gone, and the buildings had been reclaimed by foliage. They walked through the old streets; a herd of deer bolted when they spotted the three Guardians. “If the native animals are here, then the Fallen can’t be,” Khleo theorised. They carried on walking through the old city. Along the way they found a few engrams hidden in crevices of the buildings. They eventually reached an open clearing. “Hold up,” Khleo ordered, “this would be a good place to practice your class ability.”

“What?” Polaris asked, confused.

Khleo explained, “There’s three types of energy: arc, sol, and void. Hunters, Titans, and Warlocks all have three subclasses, and each uses one of the energy types."

“Technically, any Guardian can use any of the three subclasses to their class, but everyone has a certain class they have an affinity for,” Taren added.

“Right, so I’m a Titan Defender. I use void energy to produce a shield called Ward of Dawn. It creates a protective bubble around where I strike, to mitigate attacks, and can buff me and any allies that enter the bubble,” Khleo continued.

Seizing the opportunity to talk about his own subclass, Taren interjected. “I’m a Nightstalker. I produce a bow of void energy and shoot void projectiles at enemies. This tethers them, making them easy to shoot in quick succession."

“So, we are going to find out what you are,” Khleo smiled.

Still confused, Polaris inquired, “And how do we do that?”

“We channel Light to use these super abilities. Over time, Light charges up and we can use these powers.” Khleo explained.

“Focus on the Traveler’s Light, concentrate on that light, turn it into energy, and release it,” Taren added.

“That’s… _helpful_ ,” Polaris said sarcastically.

“Just try to focus. I know it’s hard, but it does get easier over time,” Khleo muttered.

Polaris sat down on the grassy clearing. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on Light. It felt silly to her trying to harness energy even when she didn’t understand what it was and the advice she was given was vague. “Light. Light. Light. Light. How do I focus on something I don’t understand?” Polaris thought to herself.

Ghost floated up to Polaris' ear, whispering, “Clear your mind, that’s a thing people say during things like this."

“ _That’s not helping_ ,” she sang to her Ghost, swatting it away in irritation. Polaris tried to sit there calmly and focus on the Light. After some time, she started to feel a warm tingling sensation across her entire body. Determined, she opened her eyes and stood up to announce, "I think I have it!"

“Great, now concentrate on it and try to release it!” Khleo encouraged. Polaris held her breath, clenched her fist, and snapped it forward. All three of them let out a disappointed sigh when nothing happened. “You can’t be expected to get it first time, right?” Khleo said, attempting to comfort her.

“You did, Khleo...” Taren sneered.

Khleo scowled at the Hunter and sighed, “that’s enough.”

“ _I’m just saying_...” he jeered.

“Oh shut up,” Polaris snapped. She went to push him back, but released the stored light energy, creating an dark purple orb that hit Taren directly in the chest. “Fucking hell!” she shouted as Taren disintegrated after being hit by the purple orb she produced from her fist.

“Voidwalker it is then!” Khleo announced, "Oh, Taren will be so pleased!"

“Pl— _pleased_? I’m sorry, are you not more concerned I just _killed_ him?” Polaris panicked.

“Oh don’t worry about it, he’ll come back. His ghost is fine, see?” Khleo told Polaris, pointing to the small dark blue ghost floating a couple meters back. Khleo walked over to it and held out her hand to the ghost; she did that for a couple seconds until Taren regenerated.

They had spent almost the entire day searching through the city for signs of Fallen. When they started to reach the city’s outskirts, the Ghosts finally started to pick up Fallen chatter. “Come on, we’re following it,” Khleo commanded. They traced the activity to an old abandoned warehouse. There were Fallen inside, investigating old Golden Age tech that had been left intact and not reclaimed by foliage. A small Dreg patrol with a couple of Shanks were scanning the old machinery.  
Taren raised his sniper rifle to precision kill one of the Dregs, but Khleo stopped him, pushing the barrel of the gun down and shaking her head. “There’s only six of them, and two are Shanks. Let’s just take them out,” Taren whispered decisively.

“Our mission is reconnaissance. We haven’t found any Fallen all day, we aren’t shooting the first ones we find. We watch, we wait, we follow.” Khleo ordered. “Pack it in.” On Khleo’s orders, the Fireteam stayed back to observe what the Fallen were up to. They didn’t do much; when they finally finished investigating the Golden Age tech, they started trying to dismantle it.

“Now can we shoot?” Taren asked irritated.

“No!” Khleo snapped. Startled by the sudden sound of Khleo’s voice, the Dreg patrol started to look around to see what was happening. When they spotted the three Guardians over on the far side of the building, the Fallen stopped trying to dismantle the tech and started to scamper away. “Follow them,” Khleo ordered, “and don’t shoot unless they engage us first.” 

The Dreg patrol were chased out of the warehouse and across a plain by the Guardians until they found some rubble they could huddle behind, taking turns to pop up and take shots at the Guardians. “Now we can shoot?” Taren snarled, jumping out the way of a grenade.

“Sure!" Khleo yelled back. The Hunter pulled out his sniper rifle and shot down one of the Shanks. Polaris barely had time to pull out her pulse rifle and aim before Taren sprinted towards the Fallen. He jumped into the air and a shadowy bow materialised in his hands. He fired an arrow into one of the Dregs, killing it instantly, and landed down next to the patrol. Taren then equipped his hand cannon, and began to shoot the remaining Fallen.

“Show-off...” Polaris muttered to herself.

The trio regrouped. Khleo was angry that their first mission together was a failure, sighing, “We just had to follow them, and it’s ruined now. Come on, let’s go back to The Tower."

Once they had returned to The Tower, Polaris looked over The City. She stayed still enough that pigeons started to land near her. Khleo and Taren joined her at the balcony, frightening the birds. “Hey! You scared the space pigeons away!” Polaris gasped as the birds flew away.

“Hey, we wanted to talk about something.” Khleo said.

Polaris sat herself down on the railing. “Shoot,” she grinned.

“Well, since we’re a fireteam, we need a team name. Since we’re all void users, how do you like ‘Void Dancer’?”

Polaris burst out laughing at the name. “ _Void Dancer_?”

“Yes! I worked hard to come up with that name!” Taren snapped, rather defensively. he was hurt by her laughing at the name he’d come up with and was proud of.

“He’s sensitive about his aesthetic. Let him have this...” Khleo whispered to Polaris, patting her on the back.

“I’m sorry, Taren,” Polaris apologised. He just huffed at her. She jumped down off the railing and said, “It’s a good name, very accurate…on the void part.”

“You’re a dick,” Taren muttered.

“ _So are you_ ,” she hissed back.

“Come on, let’s get some drinks and play cards. We can argue over a Fireteam name later...” Khleo urged, trying to avoid having her two teammates lock horns again. The Titan put her arms around both her teammates and forced them to walk with her down to the bar in the Tower hangar.


	2. Chapter 2

Fireteam Void Dancer were flying from The City to investigate reports that the Fallen based on Venus were up to something involving the Ishtar Archives. 

The Fallen hadn't tried anything big since Twilight Gap, where multiple Fallen Houses united together to crush the City; they were stopped by a joint effort from Guardians and Awoken which led to the death of the Wolves' Kell, and Mara Sov being proclaimed as the new Wolves' Kell. 

 

The Vex and House of Winter's Fallen were usually quiet and left the Golden Age technology alone, but still the Vanguard worried they might eventually uncover some powerful Golden technology in the Ishtar Academy. 

They'd just broken into Venus' atmosphere and were coming down low into the Ishtar Sink when Khleo's ship was hit by a projectile. "What the fuck was that!" she shouted to the other two. 

"You're on fire, Khleo," Taren reported. 

"I know that, you shit!" she hissed. With her ship hit, she was struggling to keep it under control.

"Ghost, scan for what's shooting us." Polaris instructed; her Ghost scanned the valley below and found Walkers aiming at them. 

"Walkers two o'clock." Ghost told the three Guardians. The Walkers were aimed ready to shoot at the ships again. 

Khleo attempted her best to order her Fireteam while fighting to keep control of her ship. "Evasive manoeuvres… of some kind. Shit, I don't know, don't get hit!"

"Incoming," Ghost informed them. The Walkers shot again at the ships, hitting Khleo's a second time and bringing it down. One of the shots hit Taren's ship, the blast tore the right wing of the ship off. To avoid getting hit by one of the Walkers’ shots, Polaris pulled her ship up sharply, carelessly causing her to hit Taren. 

"Alright, everyone prepare to go in low and transmat out fast. My ship is going to crash so we're going to have to get out soon. Clearly they don't want us here, so it's safe to assume something is going on," Khleo ordered. The three flew their damaged ships down closer to the ground and transmatted out. Khleo's ship was far too damaged to fly back into orbit by itself, and it crashed into the ground after she left control of it. "I guess I'm getting in with one of you on the way back," she said over the Ghosts. The two remaining ships started to head up back into orbit when the Walkers fired again, bringing the two ships down. 

"Fuck!" Taren shouted as they watched the two ships come crashing down. "Now those Fallen bastards are going to tear our ships apart to scrap."

Khleo sighed in frustration. "Doesn't matter, summon your Sparrows. We'll deal with the ships when it's necessary." 

Keeping with Taren's overall blue theme, his Sparrow was Prussian blue. He'd even saved up strange coins he'd found to buy a Void Drive from Xur. Polaris had done a similar thing, only upgrading hers with Emerald Coil. Taren had protested the purchase, saying that they should stick to the void theme and all get a Void Drive; Polaris and Khleo both decided to ignore Taren's idea. The two women had both gotten white and black Sparrows for themselves, Khleo opting for a Stealth Drive that produced a vibrant crimson trail. The Fireteam regrouped by the wreckage of Khleo's ship. "Everyone okay?" Khleo asked. 

"Fine, other than the fact the Warlock here crashed both our ships," Taren grunted. 

"Quit being an asshole. The Fallen did it." Polaris snapped back. 

"Pack it in. We're moving out." Khleo ordered.

They got back onto their Sparrows and headed towards the Ishtar Academy. The terrain soon changed from pools of sulphur and craggy rocks to lush green foliage covering what remained of the Golden Age civilisation. The further they travelled, the harder it was to navigate through all the abandoned cars along the roads, and they soon had to leave their Sparrows behind. Fireteam Void Dancer made its way along the Shattered Coast to the outskirts of the Ishtar Academy. Some Fallen had scuttled their way outside the Academy. The Fireteam made short work of the scattered Dregs. 

Once the Fallen were dealt with, they investigated the building the Dregs had come out of. All the old hallways had been sealed up tight, and the three Guardians had no way of opening them back up. On the far side of the building Polaris found a crudely dug tunnel that led right under the building. She called her teammates over in a hurry. "This must be where those Fallen came from. If we can't get those doors to open up, there is no way that a couple of Dreg managed it and sealed them back up again," Khleo said bluntly. The Titan took the lead and jumped down into the tunnel, followed closely by Taren and Polaris. 

At the end of the tunnel was a massive library. On either side were Fallen and Vex fighting between themselves. Once both sides noticed the Guardians standing there, they all turned attention to the Guardians and started shooting at them. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Ghost noted. The three of them dashed towards a toppled pillar for cover. Even if they were prone to arguing, the Fireteam worked well together; Polaris dealt with any Vex and Fallen that got too close to their cover, while Khleo and Taren picked off the enemies further back until there were only a few strays from either side left. They got out from their cover and made their way to the library's entrance, taking out any stragglers along the way.

Outside of the library was a large plaza, belonging to the Ishtar Academy. In the centre was the Walker that shot down the ships. Just like in the library, Fallen and Vex were fighting each other out here too. The Guardians kept down low; fighting off Fallen with a Walker was enough of a hassle, and the Vex weren't about to make it easier on them.

Whatever issues were going on between the Fallen and Vex, it was apparently more important than three Guardians. The Fireteam were met with very little resistance as they made their way to the Archives. Khleo’s Ghost scanned the area to locate where the Archives were housed; it led them to another run-down building. The fighting between Fallen and Vex raged on outside, and both sides continued to ignore them. Even if there were no enemies inside, it was clear Fallen had been there; many of the walls not covered in foliage had Fallen symbols scrawled across them. “Keep your guard up,” Khleo instructed. Her Ghost led them to a new area it identified as the Hall of Whispers. Tiled on the floor was the sigil to The Archives. “We’re close,” Khleo noted.

“...and the Fallen are here… great—” Ghost huffed. Several packs of Fallen came out from where they’d been hiding.

The Guardians didn’t know what was housed in The Archives, but whatever it was, the Fallen wanted it. The Fallen back on Earth were nowhere near as determined as the House of Winter were; mostly they would retreat from any fight with a Guardian unless the Fallen far outnumbered them. The House of Winter were fighting far more organised now than the average Fallen House usually did. 

A Servitor was processing a control panel at the far end of the Hall of Whispers; several Captains, Vandals, Dregs, and Shanks stood between the Fireteam and Servitor attempting to break into The Archives. Just like before, the Guardians got behind cover, and Khleo and Taren shot everything that was at a distance while Polaris covered them, shooting anything else that got too close to them. Several of the Fallen had gathered close to each other; Taren tapped Polaris on the shoulder and pointed to the large number of enemies that were together, and both Guardians dashed out from behind their cover. Taren took the lead and tethered multiple Fallen with his Shadowshot, followed by Polaris charging forward and using her charged-up light energy to release a devastating Nova Bomb onto the Fallen. Before Polaris had even landed back down, Khleo had eliminated the remaining Fallen the Nova Bomb had missed. “Good teamwork, you two!” Khleo praised them.

With no more Fallen to protect it, the Servitor could barely put up a fight against the three Guardians. “This is the place,” Ghost informed them, scanning the floor tiling, “see! It's got the Archives’ sigil.” 

“Can you get us in?” Polaris asked.

“Hm, give me some time to work on it.” Ghost said. Her Ghost scanned away at a small control panel where the Servitor had been working; it was largely unimpressed with the Servitor’s work, remarking that the Archives were locked up so tight that it never had a chance of opening up the doors. When Ghost finally got into the system, a set of large panels overgrown with vines slowly crawled open. As the panels shifted, vines snapped and crackled as they were pulled apart. lights slowly flickered on, one after another, to reveal a set of stairs that led down into The Archives.

They walked down the long spiral staircase, making loud echoey footsteps, until they reached a large dark room. As the Fireteam stepped inside, lights switched on and an automated announcement played. “Doctor Shim, welcome back. It has been one hundred and eighty two thousand five hundred days since last maintenance. Please perform maintenance.”

“Should we be concerned with that?” Taren asked.

“Doctor Shim can deal with it,” Polaris replied, heading into the facility. The Archives, or the room that held them, consisted of a suspended floor of metal grating on top of a deep hole that housed a large generator which kept the facility running. The actual Archives were a supercomputer that stored a surplus of Golden Age secrets and knowledge. Khleo's Ghost started scanning the supercomputer to download at least part of its contents.

“We have company…” Taren informed his teammates.

“Damn, it's Fallen. They must have followed us in here!” Khleo added. She stayed close to the Archives while Taren and Polaris ran in closer; the first wave of Fallen were quickly dispatched. The two Guardians soon rejoined Khleo back over by the Archives.

“How much longer?” Taren inquired as he peered over at Khleo’s Ghost.

“Thirty eight percent done, just give it time. Quit being impatient,” Khleo said.

“System failure, Doctor Shim. Activating emergency protocol,” the automated announcer stated as the lights of the facility switched off. A few emergency lights remained on around the Archives and periodically across the facility.

“The Servitor must have messed with the system. I'll guard the Archives, you two head over there!” Khleo commanded. Polaris and Taren both nodded and made their way back towards the Archives’ entrance; the pair stumbled across the dark facility, fighting their way through Shanks and Stealth Vandals to the backup conduit. Taren’s Ghost worked to fix the conduit while the pair of Guardians defended it from the Fallen. 

Even with repairs done to the conduit, the lights to the facility refused to turn back on. Polaris looked around and stated, “there must be another conduit the Fallen have been screwing around with. Ghost, scan the facility.” Ghost located a second backup conduit in need of repairs on the top level of the room. “Stay here and make sure no more get in!” 

Ghost activated its light and she hastily made her way through to the conduit. Polaris picked off multiple Fallen surrounding the conduit, with supporting fire from Khleo down below. She set Ghost to work repairing it when she was stabbed from behind by a Stealth Vandal; Polaris wasn’t severely hurt from, the blades deflected off her armour, but the sudden shock and pain of the attack caused her to fall over. Before the Vandal could finish her off it was shot in the head and slumped on top of her.

From across the facility Taren called out! “I got you covered.”

Still pinned under the Fallen, Polaris raised her arm and gave a thumbs up, shouting back, “thank you!” she grabbed the limp Vandal by its shoulders and rolled it off. 

“Done!” Ghost announced as the lights flicked back on. 

Polaris got herself up from the floor and made her way back to Khleo. Khleo’s Ghost was just completing scanning the Archives when Polaris and Taren joined back up with her. “Right, we’ll send what we gathered here to the Cryptarchy, and then we’ll see about looking into these Fallen further,” Khleo said. Once the files downloaded from the Archive were sent off to the Cryptarchy, Khleo set to work scanning the Servitors and Shanks to try and find out what the Fallen were up to.

Polaris and Taren were rounding up the dead Fallen to try and find any information on them. Polaris was sat on the ground with a Dreg she was checking slumped in her lap when she suggested, “isn't it possible that there's nothing here to find? I mean that they don't have a hidden motive, just Fallen being Fallen?”

“What do you mean?” Taren questioned, as he dumped a Vandal over the side of the walkway.

“I mean, Fallen just gather up technology, don't they? So maybe they just saw it open and came down to scavenge?” Polaris guessed.

Khleo joined back up with the pair, carrying a small piece from a Shank with her. “I doubt it,” she interrupted, “they were well organised this time, they had Walkers waiting to shoot us out the sky.”

“Polaris has a point maybe—” Taren began. Khleo tossed him the small device she was holding.

“There's something recorded on this device but it's all in Fallen,” she interrupted, “I'm certain we have something. Fallen never leave things recorded. Ghost! Contact Petra for me.” 

Taren threw his hands in the air out of frustration from being cut off; he looked at Polaris for support, but she just shrugged at him. “Khleo is in charge for a reason, her feelings are usually good, plus the Vanguard sent us here to check them out, so… maybe she's right? What are you going to do? Arguing won't get you anywhere,” Polaris reasoned. She tossed the Dreg to the side, pulled over a nearby Vandal, and began searching it. “Hey!” She called to Khleo, “you're going to get that recording translated, right? Tell Petra to tell that Fallen ‘hi’.”

“Fallen fucker,” Taren coughed.

“Fuck off, I'm just nice and you're an asshole,” Polaris sneered back.

It took some time for the Vanguard, the Cryptarchy, and Petra to be contacted. Firstly Khleo had contacted Petra at Vestian Outpost to obtain a translation of the Fallen recording; next she had informed the Vanguard of the situation on Venus, then she asked Master Rahool if there was anything of use on the files from the Archives that the Fallen could be after, and finally she updated the Vanguard of what she believed the Fallen were up to and how she wanted to proceed. Polaris and Taren had finished checking the Fallen bodies a while ago and had ended up playing a game of cards while they were waiting for Khleo to finish. Khleo regrouped up with her teammates and ordered them to pack up their game. 

“Those Fallen we faced were from the House of Winter. Their Kell, Draksis, has been hunted by Guardians for years. If these reports are correct, he's commanding his House from caves up in the Cinders. It seems Draksis, in an attempt to reconnect his House with the ‘Great Machine’, is trying to steal Ghosts and get lost Golden Age secrets. If we want to keep the Archives safe, and any other Guardians that are visiting Venus, we need to bring the fight to Draksis and take him out. A House without a Kell can quickly crumble. I've organised for us to undertake a Strike Mission to deal with Draksis, deal with the problem now before it's given any more time to fester. The City can't handle another Twilight Gap.” Khleo informed Taren and Polaris. The two Guardians quickly packed up their game and got ready to move out.

Khleo had rushed for the Strike to be approved by the Vanguard. As a result, when they arrived at the Cinders no Guardians had been sent there to clear out some of the Fallen. Fireteam Void Dancer had to fight their way through what felt to Polaris like endless waves of Fallen. The caves were narrow, long, and twisted constantly; the Fireteam struggled to effectively fight through them. They could only move forward slowly in a line, and were left with no cover. They were fighting an uphill battle against the House of Winter. The three Guardians were left to constantly communicate with each other to make it through, informing each other of when to use grenades and Supers, and pointing out any and all details they saw. Eventually they made it to a large valley filled with Vex fighting Fallen. Towering above everything was the Ketch of the House of Winter. 

“I wonder if they stole from the Vex too…” Ghost pondered.

“Who knows,” Polaris whispered, “but stay in my backpack, okay? You know… if they are trying to steal Ghosts and all.” Getting down into the valley was a relief to the trio. they were far more suited to fighting with available cover and in places where they could spread out. Khleo ordered that they deal with the Vex first, reasoning that the last thing they needed was Vex shooting them in the back as they headed for the Ketch. Polaris enjoyed fighting Vex; their jagged movement made it easier to hit their glowing cores and take them out in one hit. The Vex were made short work of by both the Guardians and the Fallen; the short alliance was ended by the last Minotaur crashing to the ground. The Guardians and the Fallen resumed fighting each other, and Polaris had to wonder if the Fallen hadn't attacked them immediately because they wanted their Ghosts. As they drew closer to the Ketch, Polaris noticed that the Fallen ranks were drawing thin. They were fighting above their main base and instead of sending out additional troops, the Fallen appeared to be retreating to their ship. The Fireteam finally made it to the gravity lift with little resistance. Khleo started to walk to it when Polaris blurted out, “I don't like this! I think it's a trap! They were retreating back when we arrived, I don't like it.”

“We've come this far, we can't quit now!” Khleo argued.

“I'm on half ammo for all my weapons, so is Taren, and you can't possibly have much more than us. I don't think this is a good idea!” Polaris countered. 

Khleo scowled at her teammate, clearly determined to take down Draksis. She threw Polaris a special ammo synth pack. “Here, now you have backup ammo,” she scowled. Khleo entered the gravity lift, followed by Taren. Polaris let out a frustrated sigh and followed her team into the lift. She'd never been in what was almost zero gravity before; it was a strange feeling floating up above the ground. The inside of the Ketch was nothing like what Polaris expected it to be. The ship largely consisted of varying hues of dark blue and every surface was smooth and curved. It felt reminiscent of human buildings from the Golden Age but kept clean. “Somewhere on this thing there's a Throne Room. That's where we'll find Draksis.” Khleo declared. Polaris and Taren nodded in agreement. 

The Guardians pushed through more Fallen infantry, making their way deeper inside. Much of the Ketch looked very similar, so they navigated their way through the ship by heading in the direction of where more Fallen were coming from. Polaris was starting to realise why the Fallen had retreated earlier, so they could fight with the advantage against the Guardians. The Fallen knew how to navigate the ship and the Guardians were packed in tightly, unable to fight comfortably, constantly having to watch their backs to ensure no Fallen got to sneak up on them. The lack of space and ammo between them was making dealing with endless waves of Fallen increasingly hard. Polaris started to wonder if Khleo was now just refusing to fall back out of sheer stubbornness.

After navigating several hallways, they finally found Draksis' Throne Room, the Kell waiting inside surrounded by over a dozen Fallen guards, with additional regular troops to add. There was a scorch cannon leaning against the throne. “We can still leave, Khleo. I think we should leave…” Polaris suggested.

“No. We can do this!” The Titan insisted. She took the first shot, taking out one of the Kell Guards.

Draksis stood up from his throne, towering above the Guardians and Fallen. “KA E SHA’IR, HOOR MA!” Roared the Kell. Draksis picked up the scorch cannon from beside the throne with one hand and fired it towards the Guardians. The trio split up, dashing in different directions to avoid being shot. The scorch cannon hadn't done any damage, but it had effectively split up the Guardians. Now they were having to fight hordes of Fallen alone and unable to help each other. Polaris couldn't see where Khleo and Taren were, the Fallen weren't giving her enough time to even think about checking how they were coping. The Vandals she was fighting were giving her a hard time. They were getting far too close to her, and she was forced to keep using her melee on them. Polaris was starting to become swamped by enemies, and she was down to her last magazine on her pulse rifle; with all three of her weapons now out of ammo, she charged up her Light and released a Nova Bomb to kill all the Fallen surrounding her. She sprinted away towards the back of the room and pulled out the special ammo synth pack Khleo had given her. 

Polaris was now down to her last resort. She saw Khleo was nearby and sprinted down to her to give her support. “I'm down to using that synth pack you gave me," she reported. "Where's Taren?”

“Shit. Taren is down there... I'd say he needs support, but it seems like we all do. Do you have a Nova Bomb available?” Khleo asked through gritted teeth.

“No, I used one to fall back and get here,” Polaris informed her. They continued to try to thin out the Fallen around them. Polaris took out all the closer Fallen, while Khleo dealt with the ones further off. They could only keep it up for so long; Polaris was becoming alarmingly low on bullets. They weren't even given enough time to panic before Taren was shot down. “TAREN!” Polaris screamed as she watched him get impaled by a Stealth Vandal and slump to the floor. Taren’s Ghost floated there in place, and Polaris had to fight the overwhelming urge to run over there and attempt to resurrect him. 

“Shit!” Khleo hissed. She punched the floor, activating Ward of Dawn around Polaris. “Stay here!” She ordered the Warlock, Polaris nodded and watched as Khleo ran towards the Ghost. It was then that Polaris saw the Kell take part in the fight for the second time. He aimed the scorch cannon at Khleo and charged up the weapon. The projectile hit Khleo directly on the chest, knocking her down but not exploding. The explosive stuck to her chest started to glow brighter and brighter and emit a high pitched charging sound. Khleo got up and looked towards where she had left Polaris; she shook her head in defeat and hurled her scout rifle over to her last remaining teammate. The projectile eventually became over charged and exploded directly on Khleo, killing her instantly. Polaris turned her head away, trying not to cry inside her helmet. When she looked back at where Khleo and Taren had been, she was no longer able to see Taren’s dark blue Ghost, but in its place floated Khleo's white one. The Fallen were quicker to the Ghost than Polaris was; before she could reach it, they had already stolen the Ghost. Polaris attempted to shoot them, but she needed to conserve her bullets; she scampered back to the Ward of Dawn Khleo had left her for cover.

Polaris pulled at Ghost and ordered it to contact the Vanguard. She was put through to Zavala, who was thrown off by the unexpected call. “I'm requesting an evac immediately. The Strike has failed and we need to leave immediately!” Polaris panted.

“ _The Strike has failed_? Guardian, where is your team leader? What is happening? Where are you?” Zavala questioned.

Draksis threw all four arms in the air and boomed “NE SHA DI! SHE SHO RA, NE SHA SHO!”

“ _Guardian, what the hell was that_?” Zavala demanded.

“The mission is a failure. Both my teammates are down. We are in the Cinders. We need to leave immediately. All our ships were shot down. Please! I think— I think both my teammates are dead— dead permanently. I can't see their Ghosts—” Polaris bawled.

“Sending someone to the Headlands now, Guardian, can you make it there?” Zavala sighed solemnly.

“Yes... Yes I can,” she whimpered. Ghost ended the connection and went back into Polaris’ pack. She stood up from the floor and took one last look at the Throne Room in a desperate attempt to see if either Khleo or Taren were visible, but all she could see were Fallen. She gripped tightly onto Khleo's scout rifle and sprinted back towards the entrance. This time Polaris was unable to just follow where most of the Fallen were coming from. She tried desperately to remember the way they had come, in order to find the gravity lift. Polaris ran through the halls of the Ketch, ignoring the bullets hitting her in the back; she finally reached the gravity lift and jumped into it without a second thought, expecting it to take her down, only to have it push her back up instead. Panicked on what to do, she contacted Petra. “Petra! _Petra_! Please, please, I need to speak with that one Fallen! I'm stuck on a Ketch, I need to get down, please!” She cried.

“Okay, okay, calm down Guardian I have this. We use Fallen ships here. I can help you,” Petra explained calmly.

When Polaris reached the ground, she summoned her Sparrow and headed straight for the Headlands. She ignored any remaining Fallen and Vex around the place, determined to make it out alive.


	3. Chapter 3

Polaris hadn't been out on any proper missions since the failed strike on the House of Winter. The Guardian had spent most of her time down in the Tower bar sitting in the back, or looking out over the balcony. Since she refused to leave the Tower, she'd started modelling armour shaders for Eva Levante; mostly it was just letting Eva experiment new colour combinations on Guardian armour before she sold it. Polaris was testing a new shader purple-and-orange shader in the Northern Tower. The shader didn't appeal to her, but she was sure at least some Guardians would like it. 

Eva smiled softly thanking the Guardian, "I must thank you for this, Guardian. It really helps being able to test combinations before I give them out… if it's not out of line to ask, why don't you take any missions? There are too few Guardians left, and—" 

Polaris cut Eva off before she could finish the question. "I haven't been able to— I'm sorry, are we done here?" 

Eva just nodded and let the Warlock leave. Polaris didn't go very far, she didn't even leave the northern part of the Tower. She sat on the railing overlooking the City and let her legs dangle. Ghost hovered up next to her cheek and nuzzled it as best it could. "Polaris, you can't avoid everything forever, and you can't sit around forever feeling sorry for yourself," Ghost admonished.

"But—" Polaris interjected. 

"It's not your fault, you can't punish yourself forever. It's not healthy. We've talked about it before, can you please do something, anything." Ghost implored. 

"Fine, we'll do a couple patrols in the Cosmodrome if that'll make you happy," Polaris huffed. 

Relieved that after months of trying she had finally agreed to get out of the Tower, Ghost sighed, "it really would."

The Cosmodrome had always looked exceptionally bleak to Polaris, but this time she was sure it looked even more desolate than usual. Polaris and Ghost wandered around for a while, not finding any enemies at all. She eventually summoned her Sparrow and started to look around the Cosmodrome for any patrol missions available. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a blinking green light partially covered by some overgrown spinmetal. She sped over towards it and activated the beacon as it transmitted, "hey, this is Holiday. Paying for scans in this area. Sending your ghost the details." Polaris looked over the details of the patrol, then got back on her Sparrow.

She began heading towards The Breach. When they reached their destination, Ghost said, "imagine being back here? Where I found you all that time ago."

"At lot has happened since then, Ghost," she replied. 

"You know I worried I would never find you," Ghost muttered. 

"I know," Polaris whispered, holding her Ghost over so it was pressed against her helmet, "but you found me, and we'll never be apart again. Promise."

"Promise," it murmured. The Guardian glided up onto the roof of a rusted bus shelter to survey the area. Ghost scanned the area from up where Polaris was standing. "That should do it," Ghost reported.

"Shall we pick up another patrol?" Polaris asked. She jumped down from the roof and headed back into the derelict wall to return to The Divide. Polaris came out the other side of the wall and made her way back through The Divide to Skywatch. She picked up the first patrol mission she found, a request from Ikora. 

"Any Guardians available: we have an important strike coming through. We need the area thinned. Stand by for coded dispatch." Polaris got out her scout rifle and started to pick off some of the Fallen in the area. She took out a group of Fallen before attracting the attention of some Hive.

The Hive started to flood out of their nest. It started with a pack of thralls, a dozen or so crawling out from the nest and charging headlong into melee combat range. Polaris managed to shoot three of the thralls before getting swarmed by the rest. She glided up over their heads, rendering their attacks useless. Up out of reach of the swarm, she switched to her sidearm and began furiously shooting at their heads to take them out quickly. 

The Thralls were followed by some Acolytes, a Knight, and a Wizard. The Acolytes posed little trouble to Polaris, but she was having a harder time breaking through the Knight's shield while avoiding the Acolytes and the Wizard. She finished off the remaining Acolytes before throwing a Nova Bomb towards the Knight, killing it in one shot. 

Polaris reloaded her pistol and dashed between debris until she was close to the Wizard. She stood up from behind the rock she was crouching behind and fired relentlessly at the Wizard, taking down its shields, reloading, and then shooting it a dozen or so times in the head. When the Hive creature was finally defeated, it let out a grotesque howl. 

"They really are quite something, aren't they?" Ghost said, scanning the wizard's body. "Come on, that should be enough for the strike." They transmatted out of the Cosmodrome and back to the ship.

Over the following weeks, Polaris agreed with Ghost to take up patrol missions in the Cosmodrome to keep her focused on something for a few hours a day.

 

Polaris was returning from salvaging fusor proxy drives. When she arrived back at the Tower, she headed straight down to the Vanguard hall to see Ikora and buy a new pair of boots. Polaris set her helmet down on the table eager to look at what Ikora had to offer; the Guardian was only met with disappointment that the pair of boots she liked didn't have any relevant stats to her. Ikora took advantage of Polaris’ disappointed silence to inform her, "I have a mission for you, Guardian, to travel to Europa. No one has been there in a long time but the Awoken intercepted a transmission from some Fallen." 

Ikora's Ghost played a staticky audio. "SHA'IR BO, KA DO! E DO MI E SHA'IR DI! ALL WORLDS BELONG TO TRAVELER THIEVES BELONG TO US!"

Ikora continued, "The Queen's Fallen envoy made a rough translation for us: 'Guardian banner will burn. The house of Guardians will die'. One of the few remaining former colonial worlds left is Jupiter's moon Europa. During the Golden Age there was a small colony in the Annwn Region; it's been deserted for years, but… If the Fallen are serious about this threat, someone should investigate. I would like you to do it, Polaris."

Before Polaris had time to say anything, Ghost interrupted, "We'll get right on it! You get stir-crazy staying cooped up in the Tower all day!"

"Don't we all, Ghost!" Cayde called out from the other side of the table. 

"Yes, thank you, Cayde. So... will you do it?" Ikora asked, turning back to Polaris. 

"Sure," Polaris said reluctantly with a grimace. 

When she was done speaking with Ikora, Cayde-6 waved her over. "Hey, hey, Warlock, I… I wanted to talk to you about something!" he whispered loudly. 

Polaris crossed the room and leaned against the Vanguard's table. "What is it, Cayde?" she inquired. 

He asked lightly, "Polaris… you know what's beautiful?"

"Wh— what!? Is this appropriate!?" She stammered.

"What would be inappropriate about this?” Cayde responded nonchalantly. “Nothing is more beautiful than seeing Guardians cooperate with each other like you're about to with this random Fireteam I'm assigning you to. Okay, so it's one Guardian and they're new. You are going to help 'em out. You're a Fireteam now. She's right over there. Godspeed, Warlock!"

"I— uh— of course, of course. I knew that. I— yeah. New Fireteam," Polaris said, looking at her new teammate. The Hunter was clearly very tall, much like Polaris, with pale-blue skin and vibrant pink hair that she had styled in a bun. Polaris couldn't wholly believe the fact she was forced once more into a Fireteam, with yet another Awoken Hunter. "Hey, Hunter!" she shouted from halfway across the hall to the Guardian standing by the glass overlook. 

The Hunter waved back as she walked over. "Hi, I’m Callisto, and this is Widget.” The Hunter greeted, with her white Ghost hovering by her shoulder. “Sorry about that that. Cayde said it would be the best way to—"

Polaris stopped her, "it's fine… I was just… I thought he… never mind, it's not important what I thought… nice hair, very pink."

"Thanks, nice helmet. What are those? Wings?" Callisto asked. 

"They're horns!" Polaris huffed indignantly, looking down at her helmet.

"I've already been briefed about Europa by the way. I'm totally ready when you are to get out there and shoot some Fallen!" Callisto cheered. 

"Yeah, okay, come on then," Polaris said, walking out of the hall. 

Polaris knew exactly two things about Awoken: that they didn't like outsiders, and that they were on average taller than most humans and Exos. Amanda had joked to her once that she shouldn't be a pilot because she was too tall for her ship, but now two people who were both too tall were crammed into her ship that was designed to accommodate one person less than six foot. Polaris had reasoned that they should both take her ship since they were travelling to the outer solar system, and her ship was faster; now she was wholly regretting letting Callisto in. 

They were navigating through the asteroid belt attempting, to pass the time with a guessing game. "...I spy something beginning with… ‘A’." Polaris said. 

"Is it asteroid, _again_?" Callisto asked with a sigh. 

"Yes," Polaris answered bluntly. 

"Okay, you need to stop saying the same thing each time." Callisto complained. 

" _Maybe_. In my defence, you look out here, and all there is is asteroids." Polaris retorted. 

Eventually they made it to Europa, and Polaris brought her ship down near what Ghost identified as the snow-covered remnants of a former city. When the ship came to rest on the moon's surface, the ice below creaked and moaned from the weight. Polaris and Callisto both tensed up, anticipating the ice to crack. Polaris stayed sat in her seat until she was certain that the ice wasn't going to collapse under them. 

"Come on, if Fallen are going to be anywhere, it'll be in the old city ruins," Polaris speculated. 

"I'm so ready to stab some Fallen!" Callisto shrieked with excitement as she jumped out the ship. She looked around expecting to see at least one Fallen, only to be greeted with the sight of snow and ice. Stunned, she asked, "where are the Fallen?"

"We're looking for them," Polaris reminded her. "There's _technically_ no guarantee that we'll find any Fallen here."

"Are you shitting me right now?" Callisto blurted out.

"No. What? No, why would I— never mind. No, I am serious, we're just seeing if any are here." Polaris explained. Trying to move past her confusion with her new teammate, she summoned her Sparrow; Polaris was ready to head out to the city when she realised Callisto was still standing around. "You want to summon your Sparrow? Or…well, I don't know, I guess if you just want to stand there I won't stop you." 

Callisto pointed at the Sparrow and explained "yeah, so that thing is a Sparrow right? Yeah, I don't have one, they said you'd get me one."

"No one told me that!" Polaris exclaimed. She wasn't even sure if she had enough glimmer to afford a Sparrow. 

"So…we could walk, or I can just get up on there," Callisto reasoned as she attempted to climb onto the back of the Sparrow, " _and there we go_!" She drawled. The Sparrow was tipping slightly backward from the extra weight. Polaris was starting to worry that Callisto's plan was a horrible idea. "It will be fine!" Callisto assured as she hugged Polaris tightly to avoid fall off the back. 

"I'm honestly not feeling it…" Polaris muttered. She started to accelerate, and was feeling glad she didn't need breathe because Callisto was squeezing her even tighter than before. The Sparrow wasn't designed to carry this much weight, and they barely got anywhere before it tipped fully backwards, throwing both Guardians off and crashing. 

"Walking?" Callisto asked pulling herself out of the snow. 

"Walking," Polaris groaned in agreement. 

Up close, the city looked even more eerie than it had at a distance; the cities on the rest of the former colonies and on Earth all had some kind of life in them now, but Europa was a barren frozen-waste. "They used this place as a hub to study the outer solar system… but, it's chilled me to the bone! If I had bones… or could feel the cold. It's one hundred and thirteen Kelvin, that's a low temperature, that's my point," Ghost finished awkwardly.

"Okay, so how do we get in?" Callisto asked, looking the frozen city up and down. 

"No easy way, I'm sure," Polaris commented.

"You're right," Ghost agreed. "We're about one hundred meters above the entrance. You two better get digging."

"I'm not doing that," Polaris objected. She walked up to one of the window panes of a tall building and smashed in the glass. 

"This place hasn't been disturbed for over three hundred years and you just smashed a window! Ikora would be livid!" Ghost cried. 

"Then don't tell her..." Polaris grinned smugly. She hopped up onto the window frame and slid into the building. 

Callisto shrugged and swiftly followed suit, noting "I didn't want to dig anyway." 

The two Ghosts produced lights so the Guardians were able to see. They looked down the long dark corridor, but the place was devoid of any life. "Like being in a Hive nest…" Polaris muttered. The duo picked a direction and started heading down that route, looking for a staircase.

Polaris was so used to doing missions like this is silence that she was thrown off by Callisto's constant chattering. “So what is up with that guy?” Callisto asked.

“You are going to have to narrow it down for me because that could be anyone,” Polaris told her.

“Okay, okay, the tall one with the armour,” the Hunter elaborated.

“Zavala? I don't know, he's always been like that. Cayde once said he was incapable of laughter, I don't know if that's true, I mean I haven't seen him laugh—” Polaris explained.

Callisto shook her head and interrupted, “no, not him. Orange and white, taller than, like, everyone.”

“Oh! Shaxx! He runs the Crucible where Guardians can fight other Guardians. He's pretty cool. I don't actually talk to him that much, but he's pretty cool. I don't... I don't use the Crucible very much.” Polaris replied.

“Can I fight him?” Callisto inquired.

“He doesn't really fight in the Crucible all that much… the Vanguard rarely do… but when they do, you’d better hope you're on their team. I was on a six-v-six match one time, my team had Cayde, and he just ran through the entire match like it was a game. He got an eleven kill streak. Ikora was also there, she was terrifying. I never hit her once, by the time I'd literally see her she'd kill me. Terrifying. I heard Shaxx can kill high level Titans with a single punch, like if you aren't a Titan he can send you flying… at least that's what I heard. But he's really nice. He remembers everyone's name. Shaxx is lovely!” She beamed. Callisto laughed at how caught up the other Guardian had gotten about talking about Lord Shaxx. “What?!” Polaris snapped defensively. “I just admire him is all,” she admitted.

The inside of the city was as desolate and bleak as it was outside on Europa’s surface. The city was in an enclosed environment buried deep under ice and snow. Jupiter’s moon was too far from the sun to have the city adequately lighted, and the generators that had powered the city were long inactive. “So…” Callisto sighed, “do you think there's any Fallen in here?”

Polaris crouched down and picked up a piece of debris and hurled it into the darkness. “Hm, the Fallen might be associated with the Darkness, but they aren't Hive; I don't think even they can survive in this darkness. If they were here we'd probably know it. Europa looks like a dead planet.” She surmised.

“ _Ugh_. What a waste of time!” Callisto complained. Fed up, Callisto collapsed on the ground.

Polaris kicked her teammate in the ribs. “Get up, I'm going to call the Vanguard.” Despite what Polaris had said, Callisto continued to just lie on the floor and whine aloud about the lack of Fallen on Europa. “Vanguard, we've investigated Europa and there's no sign of Fallen being here. I don't think anyone has been here.” Polaris reported.

“Okay, thank you, Guardian. Place a transmat beacon before you leave so we can send other Guardians there to make sure Europa stays that way,” Ikora ordered.

“Is that the two we sent to Europa? Hey! How's my new Hunter?” Cayde asked.

Hearing the Exo’s voice, Callisto perked up and excitedly asked Polaris “is that Cayde? Tell him I'm cool. Tell him. Tell him.” 

Callisto continuously shook Polaris to make her do what she wanted until the Warlock caved in. “Ah! _Fine_ , I'll say it,” Polaris said pushing Callisto off her. With a sigh she added, “Callisto is very cool, Cayde, she made us crash my Sparrow and she jumped through a window…”

“That's what I like to hear!” Cayde laughed.

“Vanguard out,” Ikora said. 

Ghost went back to hovering over Polaris’ shoulder; the Guardian took one more look around the city. “Come on, let's go,” Polaris said. The pair began backtracking to the building that they had entered through. On their way back, they had managed to get themselves lost several times; navigating through the darkness was proving difficult, even with the Ghosts’ light. The Guardians had found a room with multiple skeletons huddled together. “What do you think happened?” Polaris asked.

“The city hasn't been active since the Great Collapse… they were probably stranded here…” Ghost replied.

“That's grim,” Callisto muttered.

“We should leave. Best this place remain buried in the snow, I'm starting to think the Fallen don't even know this city exists.” Polaris said.

Walking back to the ship Polaris stopped to point up towards Jupiter. “What?” Callisto puzzled, looking up at where the Warlock was pointing.

“It's Callisto,” Polaris told her.

“ _No_. I'm Callisto!” She argued.

“Yes I know that. It's the moon Callisto, not _you_ Callisto. I just thought about pointing it out before we left. It's your namesake!” Polaris explained.

Callisto pointed up towards a random patch of stars and mimicked “look! It's Polaris!”

“Technically, actually, that's not Polaris, you can't see Polaris from here…” Widget interrupted.

“Not helpful, Widget!” Callisto chided. Polaris laughed to herself, knowing that her Ghost would have done the same thing.

Back at the Tower, Polaris took Callisto down to the lower levels to show her her room. When the tower was originally built, it wasn't planned to accommodate so many Guardians. During the height of the Guardians, many Fireteams, to overcome the restricted space available, began sharing rooms together as a place to relax while they weren't on missions; even with the number of Guardians dropping steadily, Fireteams were still encouraged to share rooms, as many non-undead residents of the Tower also used its accommodation. Polaris’ room was large enough for two people to live together comfortably, or for three people in more cramped conditions. Almost every surface of the room was covered in model ships, either built or in the process of being built. Polaris entered the room and threw her helmet onto the sofa in the corner of the room, waiting to hear Callisto's reaction. Callisto just stared at the immense clutter across every countertop in the room. “It's messy right now, yes, I know. In all fairness, I didn't think I was going to be sharing this place with anyone.” Polaris explained to a stunned Callisto.

“You like model ships…” She chatted.

Embarrassed, Polaris attempted to explain. “You see… it's a hobby. I like ships and I like to build model ships. Look, I wasn't doing a lot before, alright, and I wasn't exactly showing anyone my room. Don't… don’t laugh at me…”

“No, no, I'm just surprised. I thought Warlocks were supposed to be these neat, organised book nerds, _clearly not_.” She laughed.


	4. Chapter 4

Polaris watched the ships enter and exit Vestian Outpost; the Awoken ships looked far more exotic than the ones back at the tower. She wondered if an Awoken ship would be more comfortable to use since they were designed for taller pilots; sometimes herself and Callisto would use one ship for travel and the pair would have to cram themselves into the smaller human ships. Even if either Polaris or Callisto wanted an Awoken ship, it didn't matter; neither of them had enough favour with the Queen to be allowed to purchase one of their ships. 

Every time the pair came to Vestian Outpost, Polaris always let Callisto turn in missions with Petra. Polaris figured it was to gain extra reputation so she could purchase an armour shader Callisto had wanted for a long time. Even if it was for ulterior motives, she didn't mind. "Come here, wolf-slayer, let me get your scent," Variks growled. 

Polaris had been so busy thinking about what had happened on Phobos that Variks had startled her. She spun around to face the alien. "Variks, I remembered I have a Token of Judgement!" the Guardian said. 

Variks gave out a low purr, asking, "and what is it you want, warlock? Bond of Wolves? Bond of Kings? Bond of Devils?" 

Polaris shook her head "no, I'm here for the Cloak of Devils," she told him. 

Variks twisted his head in confusion. Variks attempted to touch her armour but she backed away. "You are a Warlock, yes? Cloaks are not for you," he growled. 

"It's not for me, it's for her," Polaris explained. She pointed over to Callisto who was still talking with Petra. 

"Oh? You Guardians are sometimes odd, you do not always behave as Variks expects," he purred. 

"Don't you give gifts to your friends? Like, I don't know, Petra might like some Ether Seed or something… maybe… probably not actually..." Polaris joked. 

"Me and Petra are not friends, yes? More like colleague. You are friend, yes? You tracked down and helped capture the rat Skolas," Variks growled. 

"Oh! Oh, I didn't realise that… _friends_ … I like it," Polaris muttered to herself. Slightly flustered, Polaris stuttered "We— well, Callisto helped too and—"

"Your friend does not always come over to talk, she always goes to Petra, perhaps she is interested in Queen's Envoy from how often they talk?" Variks queried. 

"Talking to someone a lot doesn't mean anything!" Polaris protested, and hurried to put on her helmet to try and regain some dignity from how much she was blushing. 

"Smooth," Ghost whispered to her once she managed to hide her face. 

"Have I offended you, friend?" Variks asked. 

"No, no, it's fine—" Polaris sighed, feeling like an idiot.

"If you have the time," Variks said, "would you tell me about your city, yes?"

Polaris nodded her head and hopped up on to some crates, by the little hut Variks was standing by, and sat down. "I've only been to The City once. There was a vendor, supposedly selling Ghosts," Polaris told him. Variks inched closer, intrigued by the Guardian's story. "It was around the Festival of the Lost. The City's streets were decorated with candles and paper decorations. It was all very pretty, even the slums. Anyway, turns out the ghosts were fakes," she explained. 

"That's a shame, Guardian," Variks purred. 

Polaris sighed, "it's funny, our purpose as Guardians is to protect people. Some of The City call us angels… others see us as something far more sinister. I can't blame them, we are technically an army of immortal undead with awesome powers..." 

 

“Does it upset you when what you try to serve betrays you?” Variks asked.

With a sigh, Polaris said, “sometimes. The history of Guardians isn't smooth, so it's hard to blame sceptics, but still there are apparently places in The City that Guardians are advised to avoid, and that is sad since we exist to protect these people.”

Callisto finished up talking to Petra and came running over to Polaris and Variks. "Hey!" She called, "we have a bounty for the Queen's Wrath. It's on Mars for one of Oryx's lieutenants. Ready to leave?"

Polaris nodded, and slid off the crates, and waved Variks goodbye. "Come back and you will be welcome, Guardian. Always. Goodbye, my friend," he purred as the two Guardians left. 

Callisto grinned at her friend and punched her in the arm, whispering, "friend."

"Shut up," Polaris huffed, punching Callisto’s arm right back.

The two Guardians were strolling through the Rubicon, through the Hollows, in the ruins of the buildings on Mars. The Cabal and Vex weren't the issue; the Taken on Mars were the real problem. Taken Phalanx were a pain neither Polaris nor Callisto wanted to deal with. They'd run into one in the Cosmodrome that had knocked Polaris off an old colonial spaceship they were scaling up. On top of that, Taken Vex made everything even more of a problem, with Goblins that could shield other Taken, and Minotaurs that were invisible. They briefly ran into several Vex that were causing problems for Cabal roaming the area; when Callisto spotted them she turned to her partner, grinning. "What's worse than a Goblin?"

"Titans! Is Titans the answer?" Polaris asked her.

" _Twenty-two Goblins_! But also Titans, yes, you are also right!" Callisto shouted as she activated Arc Blade. She killed the majority of the Vex and Cabal that were blocking their pathway to The Buried City; Polaris hung back to cover Callisto and take care of any enemies she missed with her super. 

The Ghosts were illuminating the dark hallways of a ruined building when they came across some Wolves. They were scavenging some old technology from the ruins, but seemed to achieve little more than to destroy the remaining tech. Callisto held out her arm to stop Polaris, and pointed her to the group of Fallen. Polaris nodded and crouched down while the two Ghosts dimmed their lights. One Vandal started to pull out wires from a panel, creating a small fire. The pair guessed that that wasn't what it intended to do, as it seemed startled when the panel began to spark and burn. "Hm. Stupid alien," Ghost whispered to the Guardians.

"Ghost!" Polaris snapped back in a loud whisper. 

"Yeah, Ghost, don't be mean to the Fallen, Polaris thinks they're cute," Callisto smirked. 

"Hey! That's not true, I— shut up. I didn't mean it like that, I just— shit up," Polaris muttered back, annoyed at her friends. 

"’Shit up’… heh," Widget laughed.

"Sure," Callisto said in a hushed tone with a grin. Doubly annoyed, Polaris punched Callisto in the arm. "Hey!" Callisto complained, rubbing her arm. 

While the two Guardians were arguing, they forgot they were supposed to be talking in hushed whispers, and caught the attention of the Fallen. "Callisto… Polaris… you can squabble over whether Polaris likes Variks later, we've got Fallen incoming," Widget warned. 

"What," Callisto muttered. The pair both pulled out their scout rifles and started to shoot at the Fallen. "Head shot!" Callisto exclaimed as she got a precision shot on a Dreg. 

"It's not a competition," her Ghost said.

Smugly Callisto said, "but I'm making it one… and I'm in the lead with three head shots."

"Oh yeah?" Polaris asked, "watch this!" She switched to her sidearm, jumped over their cover, and shot down six of the Fallen before having to reload. She took out two more, and Callisto finished off the remaining two with precision shots. 

"I win," Callisto announced.

"Hey! I shot eight of them, you only got four. I win," Polaris argued. 

"But mine were all head shots, you didn't get any. My shots should count as two, so I have… eight! Hm... now we're even," Callisto declared. They gave a quick check around the ruins to make sure there weren't any Fallen left. 

"Do you think we should put out that fire?" Ghost said, pointing the light at the fire. 

"It'll be fine," Polaris said, walking away from the small fire to the side of the room. 

They kept on walking through the ruins until they came out into the Buried City in a clearing that was occupied by some Cabal. Callisto counted up thirteen of them. "Odd number...rematch?" She inquired. 

Polaris grinned at her friend. "You're on." The two Guardians made short work of of the Cabal. Callisto took out a large portion of them with her Arc Blade, dashing from Legionnaire to Psion to Phalanx, killing them with Arc energy. The final scores of their new bet had Callisto at nine, leaving Polaris with four kills. Polaris protested the scores, complaining that super kills should only count as half and that Callisto had cheated and purposely wanted a rematch because she had enough light to activate Arc Blade. Callisto didn't even deny of Polaris' claims, she just chanted "best Guardian! Best Guardian!". 

Callisto had said that she had heard about Taken sightings around the Buried City, so, taking her word for it, Polaris agreed to hang around to see if any showed up. They set up a makeshift camp, each of them just dumping their gun down, on a roof of one of the abandoned buildings and waited for Taken to spawn. While there was no action, Polaris seized the opportunity to give Callisto the present she'd bought. “While we were at the Reef I got you something out of the kindness of my heart,” Polaris said. 

Unconvinced that her teammate would do something just because, Callisto skeptically asked, “ _From that Fallen, Variks? What's this for? What do you want me to do?_ ”

“Nothing!” Polaris cried. “I was just trying to be nice!”

“Hm. _Hm_. Mmm. No. No, that sounds fake.” Callisto reasoned.

“If you don't want it, I'll take it back!” She hissed.

“I bet that's what you want,” Callisto jeered.

Flustered Polaris shrieked “fine, screw you. You aren't getting it now!”

“No! No! Come on, pass it over, what did you get me?” Callisto begged. Reluctantly, Polaris handed her the package; excitedly Callisto opened it up to see what she'd gotten. Her grin dropped when she realised it was a cloak. “ _Oh, a cloak, great, now I have another one_ …” she smiled forcefully.

“It's red and black! You wear red and black!” Polaris explained excitedly.

“ _It sure is_ … it also smells of Fallen, are you sure you don't want it?” Callisto asked.

“Don't you like it?” Polaris questioned.

“No. I'm just confused why you got me a cape that smells like Fallen,” she teased.

“The other day you said you wanted a cloak that matched better...I thought you'd like that one. I wanted to surprise you more than anything…” Polaris justified. “I can take it back if you don't want it. It's fine.”

“No, no I'll—” Callisto started.

“No, _it's fine_. Just lovingly get you a gift because you're my friend and you go piss all over it,” Polaris joked.

“I'll wear it if you want!” Callisto cried.

“No, really _it's fine_. Cost me ether seeds, I'm not exactly out of pocket here. But screw you if you think I'm getting you another unexpected present,” Polaris smiled.

Nothing came past for a long time and the pair started to get antsy waiting for something to happen. Polaris introduced Callisto to one of her favourite pastimes, what she called "Sparrow Spinning." The objective of her game was to summon the Sparrow in midair and see how many times it would rotate while riding it before and the rider hit the ground. She had explained her game to multiple people, including Amanda, Ikora, Shaxx, and Khleo, who had all been unimpressed by the game. Taren and Cayde, however, seemed to get Polaris on the game; the latter had even mentioned trying it off the top of the Tower, to which Ikora had authorised a ban on summoning Sparrows in the Tower. 

Polaris explained the game to Callisto, and she sprang right to the game, saying she'd be great. Callisto triple jumped into the air and started to summon her Sparrow. She made two and a half rotations before hitting the ground. Callisto made her way up back to their base. Polaris commended her on her efforts, but said she'd be able to get four rotations in at least. She glided up from the edge of the roof, summoning her Sparrow at the same time and mounting it at the peak of her glide. Polaris started to rotate and plummet towards the ground. She got in three and a half spins before she hit the ground. When Polaris returned to Callisto, she was unhappy with her. "Your game is rigged," Callisto complained, "it's rigged for anyone with glide to win. It's rigged for Warlocks to win."

"Yeah, yeah, it is," Polaris grinned. After a brief argument over the game, they decided to quit now before they got into another argument about who was better. 

"...and then I jumped up and got an excellent position to take out the other team's Rift Runner, and just as I'm about to take the shot some other Hunter shot me… down… first..." Callisto said trailing off looking down at the clearing. 

Polaris shuffled next to Callisto to see what it was she was staring at. "What? Taken? Is it Taken?" Polaris asked excitedly. 

Callisto pointed down to a Titan who was sporadically jumping around. "They're just jumping around randomly, I don't understand, what are they doing?" Callisto muttered. 

The pair watched for awhile as the Titan just jumped around, until they finally sat down on a sand dune. They watched a little longer to see if they'd do anything but the Titan just continued to sit down in the sand. Polaris and Callisto even waved over to the Titan to get their attention, but they didn't move from their spot. "What's their deal?" Callisto's Ghost questioned. They had considered going down there to see what the Titan was up to, but they both decided they'd rather not. 

They wasted a lot of time up on their roof camp waiting for Taken to arrive. "...Hey, Callisto, you know Prince Uldren?" Polaris said casually. 

"You mean Prince Uldren, brother to Mara Sov, leader of the Awoken's Crows, and complete jackass who made us get a Gate Lord's eye only to reveal we didn't need it at all to find the Black Garden? That Prince Uldren?" Callisto said.

"Yeah, that's the one. Well, when we were at the Reef, I overheard some of the guards talking, and he was in the initial attack against Oryx. He's still alive, and he's stranded on Mars. His ship crashed. You want to go check that out?" Polaris asked.

"Normally I'd say yes, we can get some payback, something like say we are brilliant Guardians and then we'll take him back to the Reef... normally I'd say that... but we should probably do what we're already doing first, Oryx seems pretty pissed at us over Crota," Callisto reasoned.

"Hm, okay I guess... _still though_ ," Polaris muttered.

They were considering giving up after spending nearly five hours patrolling Mars looking for Taken when bright orbs started to appear down below. "Show time," Callisto grinned. They jumped down to the clearing and split up to cover as much ground as possible. The regular foot soldiers were dispatched quickly, the majors were slightly more difficult to take out. When she ran into her first one, Polaris unloaded a full magazine from her sidearm to kill it. Callisto was on the other side of the clearing, dealing with the Taken there; Polaris couldn't see what she was doing, but just hoped that she was dealing with them fine. 

When they regrouped, Callisto bragged about killing four majors; her self-appraisal was cut short when the sky turned dark and a bright flash blinded everything. By the time either Guardian could finally see again, a massive Taken Gatelord had materialised along with a dozen Fallen majors. "Stick together for this one?" Polaris asked Callisto. Polaris never got a response from her companion before she saw Callisto running forward to activate her Arc Blade; the Hunter successfully killed three majors before the Taken Gatelord stomped and took her out in one hit. "Great!" Polaris hissed in frustration. She tried to see where Callisto's Ghost was, but it was surrounded by too many Taken for her to feasibly try to resurrect her teammate. "Ghost, what is this thing?" She asked while dashing for some cover. 

"The Blighted Descendant," Ghost informed her. Polaris was cowering behind some discarded Cabal crates,unsure of what to do, when her Ghost mused, "when the Vex feel the loss of a construct to the Blight... do they feel pain?"

"Honestly not now, _please_!" She begged. Polaris poked her head out from behind the crates to try and assess the situation; she had almost completely forgotten about the Titan from earlier until she watched them run across and activate their Fist of Havoc. The Titan completely devastated the Taken around Callisto's Ghost and resurrected her. When Callisto revived, she ran over to Polaris behind the crates. 

"Why didn't you res me?!" Callisto complained. 

"You ran and got yourself killed, you dick," Polaris argued, "whatever, let's get back out there and help that Titan out." The two Guardians came out from their hiding spot and proceeded to give supporting fire to the Titan. The Titan took the most fire from the Taken; with the majority of the Taken distracted, Callisto and Polaris were able to focus all their fire on The Blighted Descendant. Callisto pulled out her sniper rifle and aimed for the Taken Gatelord's head. The Gatelord was hardly a pushover for the two Guardians, as Polaris fired every missile she had at it, only for it to seem like the Gatelord took no damage from it. With enough Light accumulated, Polaris glided into the air, positioned herself, and hurled a Nova Bomb towards the Gatelord’s chest; the Nova Bomb didn't seem to slow down the the Taken Ultra, but it seemed to do decent damage to it and the lesser Taken near it, enough so that the Titan was able to start focusing their attacks on the Gatelord as well. With all three Guardians concentrating on the Gatelord, they were able to take it down without any more deaths. One final shot from Callisto’s sniper rifle sent the Gatelord toppling over and being drawn back into the Taken plane; soon after, all the lesser Taken followed, leaving only the Warlock, Hunter, and Titan. Callisto immediately went to high five the Titan, but they summoned their Sparrow and sped off away from the city before she even got close. “What a nob!” Polaris shouted at the Titan as they sped away from them. “Just wanted a high five.”

“What's worse than a Titan?” Callisto asked in a huff.

“Twenty two Titans,” Polaris answered.

 

At the Tower Hangar, Cayde was showing the two Guardians the ship they were going to use to infiltrate the Dreadnaught. “Right then, what we have here is a ship that smells of Hive. Eris has kindly lent it to us,” Cayde explained. Polaris and Callisto glanced at each other, unconvinced by Cayde's story. “What you two are going to do is simple: fly to Saturn, approach Oryx’s Dreadnaught, and when you get close, use my expertly modified stealth tech to cloak yourselves and land safely on that ship. From there you deactivate the weapons system and leave a flaming pile of shit outside Oryx's door… Well, it's going to be the equivalent to that. Got it?”

“We'll be fine, Polaris is the best pilot and I'm already stealthy,” Callisto bragged.

“Maybe not best, but how hard can flying a Hive ship be?” Polaris added as she climbed into Eris’ stolen ship. 

The Hive ship was far more comfortable for both Guardians; for the first time, Polaris didn't feel crammed into the cockpit. As she got the ship out of orbit, Cayde came on over her Ghost. “How are things going for my favourite Awoken?”

“You say that to everyone, Cayde…” Polaris said. 

Callisto interrupted protesting, “Cayde! I thought I was your favourite Awoken!”

Quickly Cayde responded. “You're both my favourite Awoken, Guardians, that's why you're both on this mission. So, can one of my favorite Awoken tell me how the mission is going?”

“Hm, okay then. Polaris is flying this thing better than any Hive spawn could, Cayde!” Callisto announced, walking up behind Polaris.

“That's what I like to hear. Contact me when you get close to the Dreadnaught. For now, I should get back to the other Vanguard before Ikora starts calling me back over the Tower intercom,” Cayde told them before leaving.

They flew in towards the wreckage of the fight between the Reef and Oryx. Debris from destroyed ships on both sides floated past them as they drew closer towards the Dreadnaught. Few of the Queen's Guards were among the wreckage of the ships. “The Reef lost their Queen to this battle and it looks as though they barely damaged Oryx's fleet,” Polaris murmured.

Solemnly Ghost added, “it only took one blast from the Dreadnaught…”

Cayde came back to run the Guardians through this part of their unauthorised mission. “When you're through... it will never fire again. Just don't forget to plant the transmat link so other Guardians can land.” Polaris and Callisto looked at each other and nodded. Polaris brought the ship down close to the Dreadnaught, passing it's main weapon. “Not everybody's got stealth tech... and a... ship that smells like Hive. Good luck, Guardians.”

“Activating stealth drive.” Polaris affirmed. Callisto stood behind her, gripping the chair and anxiously watching the Dreadnaught.

“I'm picking up fluctuations in the power conduit.” Ghost said.

Calmly Cayde replied, “relax. I modified the tech myself! Probably just Saturn's radio storms running interference.” Callisto and Polaris looked at each other and nodded again in apprehension. Suddenly, alarms within the ship started to blare, and a red light began flashing in the cockpit. Polaris jerked her head up in alert, and began attempts to quell the situation, to no avail.

“It's malfunctioning, Cayde!” Polaris said in a panic.

“Did you break my stealth drive?” He asked seemingly unalarmed by the situation the Guardians were in.

“ _Cayde_!” Callisto said, gritting her teeth together. The ship lost its camouflage, directly in front of the Dreadnaught's firing chamber. They were too far to turn back. Polaris kept the ship heading steadily towards the Dreadnaught, looking for an optimal place to land. Whispering, Callisto asked “you think they can see us?” Almost immediately, the chamber began to surge with energy; the weapon began charging, preparing to shoot down their ship. “ _I think they can see us_!” Callisto panicked. Polaris rammed her fist forward, thrusting the ship into top speed. The weapon continued charging as the ship rushed towards the ledge nearest to the chamber. As they approached, the weapon finished its charging sequence and fired. The Guardians shielded their faces from the light of the weapon's fire; the explosion destroyed Eris' ship. Before they were hit by the Dreadnaught, their Ghosts managed to transmat them onto the ledge Polaris was aiming for. The pair turned around and surveyed the damage.

“What happened!? Everything alright?” Cayde asked.

Sarcastically, Polaris answered “why wouldn't we be all right? We're just stuck here with no ship and no transmat zone.”

Smugly Cayde replied “Great! Told you my stealth drive would work.”


	5. Chapter 5

Polaris held one of her model spaceships as she leaned back in her chair with her feet up on the desk in her room at the Tower. "Captain, can you hold them off?" She muttered to herself, making the ship swerve to avoid Imaginary asteroids. "Of course I can hold them off, I'm the best damn pilot on Earth!" She continued.

Standing in the doorway to the room was Callisto, watching her friend who was completely unaware of her presence. Callisto was attempting to stifle her laughter. As quietly as she could, Callisto crept behind Polaris and whispered "Polaris, are you playing with your toys again?"

"Shitting hell, Callisto! What are you doing here?" Polaris jumped.

"Looking for you… _And you've been playing with your toys._ You need a better hobby," she teased. 

"They aren't toys! They're model spaceships!" Polaris huffed. 

"Mate, you were just playing with them," Callisto smirked. 

"Fuck off!" Polaris sighed. "What do you want, you complete prick?" She put down her tiny ship and stared unimpressed up at her friend. 

"Do you know what today is?" Callisto asked, not waiting for Polaris to answer. "It's Crimson Days!" She gripped Polaris' shoulders and shook her excitedly. 

"So?" Polaris asked dreading where Callisto was heading with all this. 

"Shaxx has a special Crucible event on, and I have a special event on too." Callisto drawled. 

Polaris removed Callisto's hands and walked out of the room shouting, "whatever you have planned, don't involve me, your plans are terrible!" 

"I'm going to set me up..." Callisto whispered excitedly to Widget as Polaris walked away from her. 

 

Polaris stood glaring at Callisto. “What? I needed a partner to do the Crimson Doubles, I needed you!” Callisto said.

“You effectively kidnapped me!” Polaris complained. 

“ _Pfft_. Hardly!” She argued.

“You carried me across the Tower plaza to your ship and flew us to do your Crimson Doubles event,” Polaris yelled.

“I want the armour shader…” Callisto whined.

Reluctantly, Polaris said, “ _fine…_ Crimson Doubles works like standard Elimination matches except it's two-v-two. Stick close together and watch your motion sensor.” 

“You love elimination,” Callisto whispered.

They crept through the abandoned warehouse, constantly monitoring their sensors waiting for red flashes to show up. Polaris leaned out from her cover and peered down the bridge to see if the other Guardian pair were there. Before she had time to react to the glowing light on the other side of the bridge, she was shot down by the other team’s sniper. Callisto dashed towards where Polaris had been to revive her; Polaris hadn't been back for more than a few seconds before she was shot back down by the enemy team. Enraged, Callisto charged out towards the other Guardians, only to be gunned down. 

“One, nil!” Shaxx announced.

“Your plans never work, Callisto…” Polaris sighed.

“ _That one_ didn't work… Let's just charge straight down the bridge before they have a chance to camp!” Callisto planned. Polaris nodded and followed Callisto's lead. The duo thought they were onto something until Callisto was shot down as they crossed the bridge; Polaris swapped to her sidearm, ready to quickly take out the pair. she managed to shoot down the team's sniper, but was immediately taken down by the Titan wielding a shotgun.

“Two, nil!” Shaxx boomed.

“Shaxx is not helping right now!” Polaris muttered. Angry at the opposition’s cheap tactics, Polaris got fired up. “Callisto!” She yelled, “we are going to win! We are going to get you that shader! And when we kill that sniper and that fucking shotgun-wielding Titan, I'm going to blow a fucking kiss at them to really rub salt into the wound! It's the heavy ammo round, here's the plan: we run to the east ammo drop, it's closer to us, they'll never take it. This pair have established themselves as dicks, as such they probably use rocket launchers, so we're going to have to be quick if we want to get in with our swords… We run under the bridge and surprise them with blink, land on top of them, and _cut them down_!”

“Yes! _Yes_! I love it when you get pissed!” Callisto cheered.

“I'm so damn pissed, they are using the shitting Thousand-Yard Stare and a shotgun!” She shrieked. The round started and, following Polaris’ plan, the pair ran to the east side of the map and picked up the heavy ammo drop. Polaris began sprinting towards the bridge. When Callisto was shot down, she immediately halted and began running back to revive her teammate. She brought Callisto back just before getting shot and needing resurrection herself. Callisto brought her back, only to be killed a second time. Angrily, Polaris ranted, “fucking hell, you absolute shit! Try not being the worst and just camping the entire match, you fucker!” She was so focused on finding the sniper that she didn't notice the Titan behind her until they used a shoulder charge on her, taking her down.

“Three, nil!” Shaxx declared.

“Everyone knows I’m the annoying sniper here! They are infringing on my niche! C'mon, I've got a reputation to maintain!” Callisto said indignantly.

“It's okay, Callisto. We go in across the bridge, trust me…” The fourth round started and the pair charged across the bridge. Polaris could see the other guardians smugly waiting for them. “Get ready, you turds!” She grimaced to herself. Polaris jumped into the air and sent a Nova Bomb hurtling towards the other Guardians; simultaneously Callisto had activated her Arc Blade and was dashing towards them with her knife ready. The opposition was obliterated by the combined force of their Nova Bomb and Arc Blade.

“Three, one!” Shaxx proclaimed.

“Are you ready for a comeback, Polaris?!” Callisto yelled. Before the fourth round started, the two Guardians shared some brief camaraderie in the form of a fistbump, ready to claw their way to an unexpected victory. 

“Five, one!” Shaxx announced.

“That was a shit-show…” Polaris moaned.

“Well, yes, but we got candy!” Callisto beamed as she scoffed a handful of chocolate that she'd gotten as a prize after the match.

“ _Loser-candy_ ,” Polaris muttered.

Their first Crimson Doubles match was undoubtedly their worst match. After thirteen matches, Polaris and Callisto were now decked out in their Valentine armour shaders, pink Ghosts, and several boxes of heart-shaped chocolates. Polaris was crammed in the back of Callisto's ship with numerous heavy ammo crates. “Why do you have so much heavy ammo?” Polaris asked.

“In case I need to use my long knife!” Callisto replied as if the answer was obvious.

“ _Sword…_ but okay…” Polaris said.

“Oh! I have a surprise for you—” Callisto started.

Immediately Polaris snapped “I don't want it. I don't want it. Stop right now.”

“You'll like it!” Callisto protested.

“I'm sure I won't…” Polaris groaned.

They returned to the Tower and Callisto insisted that she blindfold Polaris. “I'm so excited for your surprise!” Callisto beamed.

“No…” Polaris groaned. She was roughly dragged through the Tower plaza, hitting several people along the way, until they stopped. Polaris could feel her friend’s hands shaking with excitement.

“Are you ready?” Callisto asked.

“ _I'm really not… _” Polaris winced. Callisto undid her blindfold and found herself stood opposite Master Rahool. “The Cryptarch?” She asked.__

__“Date…” Callisto whispered._ _

__She turned to face Callisto, glaring “I don't want it. No. Stop. Why are you doing this to me. No.”_ _

__“I thought you could use some practice…” Callisto explained._ _

__“Give us a moment, Rahool, it's not you,” Polaris said politely. She dragged Callisto a few paces away from the Cryptarch and whispered loudly “it is entirely Rahool what were you thinking?! It's Rahool! No-thrills Rahool! The-only-person-I-think-genuinely-likes-Zavala-as-a-friend Rahool!”_ _

__“You don't give me a lot to work with, you entirely lack my charm and charisma!” Callisto replied._ _

__“ _Rahool, Callisto, Rahool_!” Polaris murmured. She grabbed Callisto by her collar and dragged her further away from the Cryptarch. Glaring she hissed “ _why are you like this_? Anyone, Callisto, anyone would have been a better choice than Rahool… Apart from maybe Zavala… Or Saladin… Or Xur… Anyone else, Callisto.” _ _

__“Hm, well I guess you could always learn from me…” Callisto suggested._ _

__Sarcastically Polaris questioned. “Learn what from you?”_ _

__In shock from Polaris’ doubt in her Callisto blerted, “Learn what?! How to be charming, and charismatic, and endearing, and skilled, and—”_ _

__“Is _that_ how you see yourself?!” Polaris laughed._ _

__“ _Of course_. Come on, watch me with Shaxx. This is going to blow your mind!” Callisto grinned, wrapping her arm around her friend._ _

__

__Polaris stood in the Hall of Champions, watching the most ungraceful display of flirting she'd ever seen. " _So... Shaxx... What are you up to later?_ " Callisto asked sultrily._ _

__"I'll be here, Guardian, running the Crucible..." He answered._ _

___"Yeah, but, you must take breaks at some point, Shaxx..."_ Callisto continued._ _

__Shaxx boomed, "the Crucible never sleeps, Guardian!”_ _

__Ghost whispered to Polaris as they observed Callisto’s poor attempts at flirting. "He's passionate..."_ _

__"But, _Shaxx_... I was hoping you'd show me that one Titan move where you pin me against the wall..." Callisto drawled. _ _

__Embarrassed by what her friend was saying, Polaris covered up her face and looked away. "I'll tell you when it's over," Ghost sighed._ _

__"Shaxx! Shaxx!" Callisto wheezed. Polaris looked back over to find Shaxx had gotten Callisto in a headlock. "Shaxx! Please!" She choked._ _

__Ignoring Callisto’s pained cries, Shaxx asked. "Is this what you meant, Guardian?"_ _

__"Shaxx!" Callisto gargled before passing out. Shaxx released his hold on the Hunter and she slumped to the ground._ _

__"Did— Did Shaxx just kill Callisto!?" Polaris gasped, rushing over to her friend. "Callisto, are you dead?" She shouted, slapping Callisto in the face._ _

__When she came to Callisto babbled, "That was hot..."_ _

__"Not dead..." Polaris sighed. "I was looking forward to a five minute break from... _This_..."_ _

__Polaris thought that she'd seen the pinnacle of Callisto's terrible flirting, until she watched her friend swagger over towards the Vanguard, jump up onto the table, and lie down in front of Cayde-6._ _

__Polaris gingerly walked over to Ikora. "She's... She's been like this all day... Just flirting at people. At. She’s just been ignoring the fact no one is interested."_ _

__Zavala looked over at Callisto disapprovingly. “This is highly unorthodox, Guardian, you can’t go around distracting people from their work to ‘ _flirt_ ’ with them.”_ _

__Polaris looked Zavala up and down, scoffing. “Okay, yeah, don’t worry. No offence but she’s not going to try flirting with you, you can just keep doing whatever it is you do.”_ _

__Bragging Callisto said, "you know, I once got a twenty kill streak in the Crucible!"_ _

__Trying to callout Callisto Polaris coughed. "Bullshit!"_ _

__"Really? I got a _thirty_ kill streak!" Cayde boasted back._ _

__Muttering Ikora said, "I don't remember this, Cayde..."_ _

__"I've killed two Guardians simultaneously with one shot from my sniper rifle!" Callisto crowed._ _

__"I've done that... _But I took out three_!" Cayde gloated._ _

__"Well, I got Polaris a date!" Callisto remarked._ _

__In protest polaris added, " _who was Rahool_!"_ _

__Quickly, Cayde fired back. "Well I got her a new Fireteam!"_ _

__" _Who was Callisto_!" Polaris objected. "I can't stay here. Callisto, when you're done with... this, I'll be in the hangar bar."_ _

__"Can't!" Callisto shouted as she stared intensely at Cayde._ _

__"What do you mean 'can't'?" Polaris asked._ _

__Explaining Callisto elaborated, "literally I can't go in. I'm banned from the bar…”_ _

__"What the hell did you do?!" Polaris demanded._ _

__"I'm banned from talking about it..." Callisto jested._ _

__Cayde laughed. "Oh that! Ha! That was great, where we—"_ _

__Scolding Ikora said, "you're banned from talking about it too, Cayde."_ _

__Callisto watched Polaris shake her head disapprovingly at her. “After what happened with your poker night I would have thought you'd learn, Callisto!” Polaris chided. Callisto just shrugged. Polaris shook her head again and left the hall._ _

__“We'll pick this up later, Cayde,” Callisto sighed, “now she's mad at me, she's going to try and lock me out of the room again… I can't have that happen, that's where all my knives and wolf tees are… I love those tees… I was going to show them off to Lord Saladin!” She slid off the table and hurried after Polaris. She caught up to Polaris by the stairwell and slapped her on the back. “Hey! Why are you mad? Is this about Rahool? Me flirting with Cayde?”_ _

__Polaris looked at her friend and laughed, “No! Well, Rahool! But, no. Hm. I was organising you a party. I told everyone to meet in the bar, and now I find out you can't go there because of something you've done with Cayde, and I can already tell that whatever the story is it's going to be wild because it involves you, Cayde, and that bar.”_ _

__“You were organising me a party! Who did you invite? Wait! Why are you organising me a party?” Callisto beamed, surprised._ _

__“Next week it's your resurrection day… It's a silly tradition I had with my old Fireteam. It's basically a birthday, but well, you know… Those are a little irrelevant now, aren't they. Anyway, I had invited all you favourite people to the hangar bar: Zavala, The Speaker, Xur… I was going to invite Rahool, but that would be awkward since we just ditched him in the middle of a date, am I right?” Polaris laughed._ _

__“What?! No?! That's not funny, Polaris, no one want to hang out with Zavala for a celebration!” Callisto whined._ _

__“Oh shut up, like I'd want to spend any amount of time with the No Thrills Club. Of course I didn't invite them. Not that it matters now! I have to find a new location… Do you think the Reef has bars?” Polaris wondered aloud. She put her arm around Callisto and grinned. “If you're done… Uh… ‘ _Flirting_ ’… Do you want to go to Mars?” _ _

__“What are we going to do on Mars?” Callisto asked._ _

__Polaris scoffed, as if it were obvious. “Sparrow Spinning!”_ _

__Callisto and Polaris flew to Mars and wasted no time in summoning their sparrows and heading out into the Martian wasteland. They travelled several hundred miles out into the waste, far away from the Vex, Cabal, and Wolves. The majority of Mars was uninhabited, so they could mess around with their sparrows without worrying about being attacked by any of the other factions. Callisto and Polaris were performing donuts on their sparrows in the middle of nowhere, the boosters kicking up the dust on Mars’ surface to create a small dust cloud. Callisto jumped off her sparrow while it was still racing and landed with a hard thud. She threw a stone over towards Polaris to grab her attention and shouted, “Stop! No more donuts! It's getting my cape dusty! Stop it!”_ _

__Polaris hit the brakes on her sparrow and it spun around to point it at Callisto. She sped over and spun her sparrow again, so a cloud of ash floated into Callisto's face. Smugly, she laughed, “Now the rest of you is dusty to match it.”_ _

__“This isn't a joke, Polaris! As a Hunter I have to keep up good fashion, this is serious!” Callisto protested._ _

__Polaris looked down at her friend and jeered, “You wear tops with wolves on them howling at moons… It doesn't matter what your armour looks like, I will still be the fashionable Guardian and you will be… The person who wears wolf tees and wildly swings a knife around the Tower sometimes.”_ _

__“You! The fashionable one!?” Callisto gasped in horror. “you just wear crop tops and knitwear all the time!”_ _

__Polaris did finger pistols and smirked. “Fashion, mate.”_ _

__“Ha!” Callisto laughed._ _

__Polaris scoffed. “Whatever, I'm still the best driver _and_ pilot!”_ _

__“Oh really? Then race me!” Callisto challenged. She summoned her sparrow and climbed back on. “When my grenade hits the floor we race to the edge of that crater,” she said, pointing straight ahead to a crater in the far distance._ _

__You're on!” Polaris responded, determined. She positioned herself so she was level with Callisto, wanting to make sure it was as fair a race as possible. Callisto checked the position of both their sparrows and nodded, hurling her grenade high up into the air. Both Guardians watched as the grenade arced and plummeted to the floor. As it hit the dusty surface, it sparked and lightning spread out across the ground. Callisto's reaction was far faster than Polaris’, and she sped off first, taking an early lead. Polaris was only a few seconds slower, but her delayed reaction coupled with Callisto's faster sparrow made her doubt that she could actually win their drag race. Polaris was sure that had it been a track race she could easily gain on Callisto, but now all she could rely on was the hope that the fact she was lighter than Callisto would allow her to make up the difference between them._ _

__Three-quarters of the way to the crater’s edge and there was little between the two Guardians. Callisto had been forced to maneuver out of the way of some small rocks and shrubbery, slowing her down enough to keep Polaris in the race. They were neck-and-neck; Polaris turned to taunt Callisto when, far off in the distance, she spotted a shipwreck and a small figure. She let go off her accelerator and let the sparrow gradually slow to a stop._ _

__Callisto hadn't even noticed her friend drop out of their race when she sped off the edge of the crater. She landed near the centre of the crater, her speed decreasing dramatically as her sparrow roughly hit the ground. Callisto removed her helmet and shook it in the air in excitement. She called out “Yes! Get in! Polaris, who's the best driver now, huh!?” When she had finished gloating, she looked around to notice she was alone. “Polaris?” She muttered, confused. Callisto sped back out of the crater to find her friend sitting and looking out into the distance. “I'm not doing a rematch because you pulled out the race—” she started._ _

__“Yeah, fine, whatever. Callisto, that's a person, right? Out there…” Polaris asked, pointing out at the crashed ship._ _

__“Looks like it,” Callisto answered._ _

__“What are they doing out here? You don't think it's…” Polaris trailed off._ _

__“Could be… Let's find out!” Callisto coaxed._ _

__They sped over towards the wreck. As they got closer Polaris could tell for sure that it was indeed a person hanging around a crashed ship. She could tell by the ship’s vibrant blue colour and unique shape that it was definitely Awoken. “Hey!” Polaris called. The figure raised their hand to the Guardians. As they got closer Polaris shouted “hey!” again._ _

__“Yes, I can see you both. What do you want?” The figure snapped._ _

__“Definitely Prince Uldren…” Polaris muttered._ _

__Callisto jumped excitedly off her sparrow and grinned, “it seems we are in quite a situation…” she leant close to Polaris and whispered, “Roll with me, remember that time we were waiting for Taken?” Polaris’ face lit up, remembering what Callisto was referring to._ _

__The Prince sighed in frustration. “Come over to the cockpit then…” He muttered. The Guardians followed Uldren along to the larger of the two halves of his ship. The three of them were sat in a huddle in what was formerly the cockpit. Callisto and Polaris both had devious grins, while Uldren glared at the two Guardians._ _

__Callisto looked the Prince up and down, remarking. “ _So… Stuck on Mars, huh_?”_ _

__“ _Terrible shame_ ,” Polaris added._ _

__“Were you sent here by the Reef, by my sister? Was it Petra who sent you? Or that Fallen, Variks?” He asked._ _

__“Ha! She wishes!” Callisto hollered._ _

__Polaris glared towards her friend, hissing, “shut up!”_ _

__“No, we were out on Mars recreationally. And then we happened upon a crashed ship, and who should it belong to? None other than the missing Prince!” Callisto marveled._ _

__“Quite the coincidence…” Polaris added._ _

__“Okay, but were you sent here?” Uldren repeated._ _

__In unison the two Guardians replied. “No.”_ _

__Callisto continued. “Don't worry, we can get you back to the Reef… _But_ it'll cost you…” _ _

__“Cost me? What do you… _No_!” Uldren snapped._ _

__“Make me a crow! No! I want to be one of the Queen’s Guard!” Callisto demanded._ _

__“ _I will do neither of those things_!” He sneered._ _

__“Callisto, you don't want to be a Crow. Look at him.” Polaris gestured to Uldren and scrunched her face. “Hundred glimmer they're lame as fuck,” Polaris betted._ _

__“Hm, good point…” Callisto agreed._ _

__“ _L— lame_? Have you any idea how impor— What we do? You utter— What makes you think you Guardians are so great?!” Uldren ranted._ _

__“We _do_ look cooler, we probably couldn't even be part of your lame gang because we look _too good_. You could have a coup d’état on your hands, next thing you know we're in charge of your Crows…” Callisto suggested._ _

__“Isn't Variks in charge of the Crows now? You know, since you've been stuck on Mars eating shit potatoes…” Polaris chimed in. She turned to Callisto and loudly whispered, “I don't want to do a coup to Variks.”_ _

__“Fine! No one is doing any coups, okay?” Callisto huffed. Annoyed, she crossed her arms and muttered, “I wanted to do a coup.”_ _

__Uldren inhaled deeply and said, “I've made the decision I would not like to be rescued by you two…”_ _

__“Uldren. Uldren, please. _Uldren_ ,” Polaris scoffed._ _

__“ _Uldren_. Uldren. _Uldren_ ,” Callisto mimicked. _ _

__The two Guardians carried on just repeating the Prince’s name continuously, exchanging looks with each other and with Uldren, until he became so frustrated he yelled, “Fine! What is it you idiots want!”_ _

__“Stab me with that knife!” Callisto blurted out. Uldren unsheathed his knife and lunged at the Hunter, stabbing her in the neck. Callisto's body slumped over onto Polaris._ _

__The Warlock looked down at her dead friend’s body and shrugged, pushing it onto the floor. She looked at Uldren and muttered, “Honestly couldn't give a shit…” Polaris waited a couple minutes before reviving Callisto._ _

__When she was revived, Callisto had a devious grin. “ _Nice _,” she drawled.___ _

____Thinking she had just found the ideal gift for Callisto for her Resurrection Day, Polaris piped up, “alright, give us that knife…”_ _ _ _

____“No,” Uldren ordered._ _ _ _

____Smirking Callisto suggested, “I know! Go on a date with me!”_ _ _ _

____“I will literally not!” He scowled._ _ _ _

____“ _Rude_ …” Callisto gasped. She looked around the wreckage and pointed to Polaris asking, “go on one with her?” _ _ _ _

____“No,” he frowned._ _ _ _

____“Excuse me!” Polaris gasped, “Her I understand, she’s… Well she's Callisto, she's a twat. But I am the actual charming one of this duo.”_ _ _ _

____“Keys? Keys to below the Prison of Elders? Will you take Keys, so this can be over…” Uldren offered._ _ _ _

____“Yeah! We’ll take them!” Polaris affirmed._ _ _ _

____“Haha! Yeah, she's always trying to make us go to the Prison of Elders!” Callisto cackled._ _ _ _

____“Fuck off…” Polaris hissed._ _ _ _

____“I guess we better get back to the ships…” Callisto sighed, “Shame really… We'll have to finish that race another time.” The three Awoken trundled out of the crashed ship. Callisto grinned deviously “The ships are nowhere near here, Uldren,” she informed. The Hunter summoned her sparrow and gestured to it, asking, “I don't suppose you have one of these?”_ _ _ _

____Uldren looked at the vehicle sighing. “No… _I do not_ …”_ _ _ _

____“Looks like we're going to have to pair up… You can get on the back of mine, _I don't mind_. Thing is you'll have to hold on to me, it's okay if you've gotta squeeze me _tight_ …” Callisto drawled. _ _ _ _

____“If I'm given the choice, I think I'd rather go with her.” Uldren pointed to Polaris, who was looking through the ship wreckage._ _ _ _

____“Her?!” Callisto blurted out._ _ _ _

____“What about me?” Polaris asked, joining back up with Callisto and Uldren._ _ _ _

____“I was explaining to our friend here that the ships are nowhere near here, so he'll have to go on the back of my sparrow….” Callisto grinned._ _ _ _

____“And I'm not going with her…” Uldren objected._ _ _ _

____“Callisto, you told him he has to ride on the back of your sparrow? But we've tried that before, _remember_? We fell off. You know two people can't ride a sparrow together,” Polaris chided._ _ _ _

____“Excuse me?!” Uldren yelled._ _ _ _

____Callisto turned to scowl at Polaris and hissed, “ _he didn't need to know that_!”_ _ _ _

____As they walked through the Mars wasteland, Polaris nonchalantly asked, “Uldren… Do… Do you have any, uh, any Ether? I'm just asking… For a friend…”_ _ _ _

____Uldren questioned her odd query, “why would you want any Ether?”_ _ _ _

____“ _Why do you want Ether_?” Callisto repeated._ _ _ _

____Trying to deflect the questions, Polaris replied. “Just— Just asking…”_ _ _ _

____“You're up to something, _aren't you_?” Callisto smirked._ _ _ _

____“No!” Polaris protested. Callisto looked over at Uldren and nodded._ _ _ _

____Uldren looked on at the Guardians’ ships, unimpressed by both. Snidely he remarked, “is _that_ your ship?”_ _ _ _

____Polaris glared at the Prince. “Is there a problem with my ship?”_ _ _ _

____“Hm. Well, they're hardly—” he started._ _ _ _

____“Careful how you finish that sentence, buddy, or you'll be flying back to the Reef next to her!” Polaris threatened. Callisto was grinning and raising her eyebrows at Uldren._ _ _ _

____“Polaris, I find your ship to be perfectly adequate…” The Prince began, he looked to see she was still glaring at him and continued, “in fact it's better than adequate… It's a very nice ship.”_ _ _ _

____Polaris cracked a smile and smugly boasted, “I know it is… I'm still not letting anyone else pilot my ship though so…”_ _ _ _

____Callisto snapped her fingers and smirked, “what's black and blue and red all over?” Both Polaris and Uldren looked at the Hunter, confused. “You... because of… how much you are going to be blushing and… _Shit_ …” Callisto said, trying to flirt._ _ _ _

____Polaris laughed and jeered, “Even for you that was bad.”_ _ _ _

____“I’m not going near her!” Uldren grunted._ _ _ _

____“Too bad. My ship, my rules!” Polaris said snidely._ _ _ _

____The ship docked at Vestian Outpost, and the three Awoken transmatted out of the ships. Callisto put her arm around Uldren, giving him a grin. The trio walked over to Petra. Swaggering towards the Queen’s Wrath, Callisto called out, “oh Petra we have a surprise for you! Guess what we found on Mars! We found Prince Uldren! We rescued him from the Martian wastes."_ _ _ _

____Petra looked over at the entourage approaching her. "God... Why'd you go and do that..." she muttered. Petra pulled a fake smile and grinned, “ _oh! How lovely… You located… Prince Uldren… Is back…_ ”_ _ _ _

____“Yes, I was stuck on Mars… And then they found me…” The Prince grimaced._ _ _ _

____“I believe we are owed some Keys…” Callisto drawled._ _ _ _

____“Keys?” Petra questioned._ _ _ _

____“It was give them keys, or make make her one of the Crows…” Uldren muttered to Petra, nodding in Callisto’s direction._ _ _ _

____“Oh… So you two will be wanting Treasure Keys, Guardians?” Petra asked._ _ _ _

____“Yes!” Callisto blurted out._ _ _ _

____Polaris took the opportunity to inquire once again about Ether Seeds. “Not really, but do— Do you have any Ether? You know, that you don’t need?”_ _ _ _

____Petra replied, confused. “No…”_ _ _ _

____Defensively, Polaris snapped “I was just asking!”_ _ _ _

____Petra handed over a pair of Treasure Keys to Callisto, who was grinning at the opportunity to collect more loot from the Prison of Elders. After she packed away the keys, she looked over at Petra and grinned flirtatiously. “You know… _Petra_ … The Queen is renowned for her beauty, _but you are something else_.”_ _ _ _

____Petra immediately brandished a knife and pressed it against Callisto’s neck. “You take that back, Guardian!” She choked. “Don’t you dare speak ill of Queen Mara!”_ _ _ _

____Callisto backed off, her smug aura faltering. “Sorry… Sorry… I mean, Mara is very pretty… And I just— Nevermind, I’ll go see what Polaris is up to…” Callisto laughed awkwardly._ _ _ _

____Polaris had left the gathering and had started to meander her way over to Variks; before she reached him, Polaris veered off to the left towards the railing. She pulled out all the Ether she had collected over various missions and began to saunter the rest of the way to Variks. “Hello!” Polaris stammered. She held out her hands offering the Ether Seeds._ _ _ _

____Variks looked down at the Seeds, then back up at Polaris. “Do you want ammo synthesis?” He inquired._ _ _ _

____“No! It's a… A… Well it's a…” Polaris stammered, she offered the Seeds over again._ _ _ _

____Callisto had circled around, backing up from Petra and ending up near Master Ives. She was crouched over by a table of incense, watching everything between her teammate and the Fallen play out from afar. “ _I've got to be the best wingman ever_.” Callisto grinned deviously._ _ _ _

____“I'm sorry, are you talking to me?” Ives questioned._ _ _ _

____“What?” Callisto blurted out. She looked up to find the Cryptarch looking down at her. “No, I wasn't talking to you!” The Hunter hissed. She rolled her eyes, muttering Widget, “he's like Rahool but _worse_ , he actually talks to us.”_ _ _ _

____“Hey!” Master Ives complained, “I will have you be made aware, I am far more qualified than that fool—”_ _ _ _

____Callisto got up and hushed the Cryptach, covering his mouth, growling. “ _Shut. Your. Mouth._ ”_ _ _ _

____Polaris gritted her teeth and smiled, “I had some Ether Seeds and I don't need them, so I thought you would like them.”_ _ _ _

____“Hm… Guardians come here for trade,” Variks replied._ _ _ _

____She offered the Ether Seed again urging, “yes! But see… I thought I could give them to you as a gift, yes?”_ _ _ _

____“Yes.” Variks purred. He took the handful of Ether Seeds from Polaris and handed them to the nearby robot. “Take these, I'll use them later.”_ _ _ _

____Callisto left Ives and began her prowl over towards where Polaris was, whispering. “I am an excellent wingman.”_ _ _ _

____“I will give you a gift back, yes?” Variks offered._ _ _ _

____Caught off guard, Polaris squeaked, “Okay then!”_ _ _ _

____Callisto had positioned herself now, ready to put her plan into action. She crept up behind Polaris, using her cloaking to remain undetected; Callisto grinned and shoved Polaris forward. The Warlock was sent hurtling towards Variks. Her jaw collided with his prosthetic arm. Polaris let out a pained cry as her face hit the hard metal. Variks caught her with his three other arms, stopping Polaris from plummeting to the ground. With Variks’ help, she stood back up and gently covered her half of her face that had hit him._ _ _ _

____Watching everything unfold, Callisto slinked away behind some crates that were near Variks’ pod, back towards Master Ives._ _ _ _

____“Are you okay, Polaris?” Variks asked._ _ _ _

____With her free hand Polaris gestured to the left side of her face, grimacing, “I feel like we're looking good this side.” She gestured to her right half that she was still covering with her hand. “And we're looking bad this side.”_ _ _ _

____Variks moved her hand out the way to look at the injury. “Your face has gone purple, has swollen.” He told her._ _ _ _

____“I'll be fine, probably nothing more than some bruising. I'm sure Callisto and I will go out and do some patrols and she'll get me killed somehow, and Ghost will just bring me back good as new,” she smiled._ _ _ _

____“I will get you the thing now,” Variks purred. He walked off into the pod behind him, taking the Ether Polaris had gifted with him. While he was gone, Polaris took the opportunity to sit down and take a rest. She was admiring one of the Awoken ships docked above her when she was greeted by the sight of Callisto grinning at her._ _ _ _

____Innocently, Callisto asked. “Going well?”_ _ _ _

____Accusingly Polaris said, “my face smacked into Variks’ metal arm and I am in pain. I assume you pushed me?”_ _ _ _

____Dodging the question Callisto smiled. “But he caught you so I'd call it a success.”_ _ _ _

____“That was basically a confession! ‘I pushed you and got your face smashed’. When I'm not in horrible pain, I’m going to shove you off the Tower, you shit,” Polaris winced. When Variks returned, carrying with him a small metal box, Callisto looked over and smiled, “three’s a crowd, plus I need to see a Cryptarch about an Engram.” Callisto skulked away back towards the Cryptarch._ _ _ _

____“This is for you, Polaris,” Variks purred, handing her the metal box._ _ _ _

____The box was cold to the touch, and Polaris pressed it against her swollen jaw. “You know, this is the first time you have addressed me by my name rather than Guardian… or, uh, friend. Part of me wondered if you even knew it.” she smiled._ _ _ _

____“Yes, the other one says it a lot when she wants you… what I gave you wasn’t for your face, it is a puzzle box, yes? You have to solve it, I found it in the Reef. keep it away from that Ives, he would covet such things away.” Variks growled._ _ _ _

____“Thank you,” Polaris took the box off her face. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was really enjoying using the box for it’s unintended purpose. Polaris sat there with Variks until the pain had somewhat subsided. “I should get going, Callisto will get bored soon and start making new terrible ideas I’ll be involved with.” she smiled despite the pain._ _ _ _

____Purring he gave farewell. “Perhaps I will see you sooner rather than later.”_ _ _ _

____“Ideally without Callisto’s interference…” Polaris said. She pulled herself off of the floor, taking her new puzzle box with her. Making her way past the Cryptarchy and the Royal Guards to the other side of Vestian Outpost where Callisto was chatting with the Osiris representative, Polaris investigated her box. She looked it over once and shook it to see if she could hear anything rattle inside, though she heard nothing. It appeared that the box required her to shift the surface of the box to make a pattern to enable it to open._ _ _ _

____Sultrily Callisto said, “ _Vance… You, me, Osiris’ voice_ , can we call it a date?”_ _ _ _

____“Guardian, I am here to find those who are ready for the Trials, I do not have time for your mockery.” Brother Vance answered._ _ _ _

____Callisto frowned at getting rejected so soon. “Hm, whatever, I got stabbed by Prince Uldren, I don't need this!” she huffed. Callisto saw Polaris coming over and boasted, “and I was an amazing wingman!” She wrapped her arm around her friend and grinned, “how was it?”_ _ _ _

____“Fuck you, Callisto…” Polaris whispered back._ _ _ _

____They made their way back to Polaris’ ship Callisto kept trying to take the box. “Come on! Just let me look at it! I want to know what it is! Since when do you like puzzles anyway?” Callisto muttered, trying to grab the box._ _ _ _

____Swatting away Callisto’s grabby hands, Polaris replied, “I like puzzles! You think making those model ships is easy? Anyway, since when did you like puzzles?”_ _ _ _


End file.
